Read the excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Masque of the Red Death." [W]hile the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from the centres of the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with the same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the first, through the blue chamber to the purple—through the purple to the green—through the green to the orange—through this again to the white—and even thence to the violet, ere a decided movement had been made to arrest him. What is the effect of parallelism in this excerpt?
Answer
A
It emphasizes Prospero’s steady, confident approach.
B
It emphasizes the rapid progression of time.
C
It emphasizes the excessive opulence of the decor.
D
It emphasizes the frantic spiral toward confrontation.
Explanation
The repeated structure of the room-to-room sequence—“through the blue ... to the purple,” then through the purple to the green, and so on—tracks Prospero’s movement. The phrase “the same solemn and measured step” reinforces that his pace remains controlled as he advances. Thus, the parallelism emphasizes Prospero’s steady, confident approach, rather than a frantic movement or the passage of time.
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