Final answer:
Parallelism in 'The Masque of the Red Death' by Edgar Allan Poe enhances the story's theme, with examples like the progression of the seven rooms and the chiming of the ebony clock reinforcing the motifs of life's stages and the inevitability of death.
Step-by-step explanation:
The use of parallelism examples in the Masque of the Red Death serves to enhance the theme of the story. In literary works, parallelism is a device that uses similar structures in phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to bring attention to particular elements or to create rhythmic resonance within the text.
Edgar Allan Poe frequently uses this technique to reinforce thematic concerns, such as the inevitability of death and the futility of escapism. For instance the progression of the seven rooms from east to west parallel the stages of life, culminating in the dark funeral-like seventh room that symbolizes death. The constant recurrence of the ebony clock which chimes each hour, also serves as a parallel reminder of time's progression toward death.