Why do the revelers cease dancing and listen to the chiming of the clock, and who does the clock seem to affect more?

The
foreboding ebony clock in the seventh room of the imperial suite symbolically represents
mortality and death in Poe's classic short story " ." During Prince Prospero's
elaborate, bizarre masquerade, the ebony clock strikes a low, peculiar sound every hour, which
has a unique effect on the revelers and the orchestra entertaining the...