What does each color/room in "The Masque of the Red Death" mean?

Blue: a cool
color, the color of lifegiving water, or calm blue skies.

Green: the color
of nature and life.

Purple originally was associated with royalty. This was
because it was very expensive; originally it was derived from shellfish and it took thousands of
shellfish to get one gram of pure dye. Later,"Pope Paul II in 1464 introduced the so-called
'Cardinal's Purple,'" which was extracted from an insect. (Podhajny, par.
10).

Purple is also associated with spirituality and mystery. Another way to
think about purple is that it is the combination of hot red and cool
blue.

Red is often associated with blood, and thus with life, but also with
death (the pouring out of blood). It is a warm color (warm or hot blood), but also a color of
autumn.

Orange: also a warm color, and a color of autumn.


Both colors of autumn can be thought of asthe end of life (the leaves turn
red and orange in autum because they are dead or dying).

White: for Western
civilizations, represents cold and death.

Black is, as you said, associated
with death, but it also associated with the unknown, and often with fear (most of us have a fear
of the dark when we were young). Black hides things - it is a color of
blindness.

Reference: Podhajny, Richard M.,Ph.D. "History, Shellfish,
Royalty, and the Color Purple." Paper, Film & Foil Converter. 1 July 2002. 13 November
2007.