“And now the presence of the Red Death was recognized. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one the revelers fell into the blood-stained halls of their feast, and each died in the desperate posture of his fall” (Poe, par. 14).” “And the life of the ebony clock was extinguished with that of the last of the gays. And the flames of the tripod expired. And Darkness, Decadence, and the Red Death exercised unlimited dominion over all” (Poe, par. 14). “It [the Mummer] is a characteristic copy of both the darkroom and its ebony clock” (Roth, par. 8). “The ebony clock continues to chime the passing hours as the revelers draw closer and closer to the moment of their own death” (Zimmerman, par. 12). Poe, Roth, and Zimmerman reveal that the mummy is a symbol of the clock and tripods in the dark chamber of death. This is about both fate and time, and because their time was up, fate came to claim them. Poe also states that the Red Death ruled over all and because the mummy also represents the Red Death, he ends the story by reinforcing his theme that man cannot control fate and fate will rule over all. In “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, the symbolism of the mummy, the masks, and the fortress conveys the idea that no matter how hard one tries to control death, fate will prevail. There is nothing man can do to control every aspect of life. “Frail humanity can never escape the inevitable ravages of time” (Zimmerman par. 12). Poe's story serves as a lesson to the reader: when he tries to change his destiny, he falls and dies in the desperate posture of his