Description
The short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, focuses on a terrible plague with gruesome symptoms. Victims of this disease are described as experiencing “sharp pains”, “sudden dizziness”, and “profuse bleeding at the pores.” The victims die within 30 minutes after experiencing symptoms, making the “Red Death”, as the plague becomes known, a particularly bloody and lethal sentence for those who contract it.
Ignoring the plight of the less fortunate souls suffering around them, Prince Prospero and 1000 fellow nobles retreat to the Prince’s abbey in order to wait out the plague amidst the luxury that their lofty stations afford them.
These nobles have the doors of the abbey welded shut, and the revelers believe they are safe from the horrors taking place outside their walls. They are so sure of their safety that Prince Prospero eventually decides to hold a masquerade ball in 7 rooms of his abbey. Each of these rooms is decorated in a specific color – blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet. The panes of glass in each of these rooms are the same color as the room itself.
The final room where this lavish party is being held is black, but unlike the other six rooms, this final room’s panes of glass are a different color than the décor. In this room, the glass is a deep red, illuminating the space with a scarlet light that casts a blood-like glow about the room. Few revelers choose to venture into the ominous air of this final room, which also features a large ebony clock that chimes at the top of each hour. As soon as the clock begins to sound, all music and conversation at the party ceases, only to resume once the chimes are silent once again.
As the black clock tolls midnight during the masquerade, a mysterious red-robed figure enters the ball. He is dressed like the Red Death, and a crimson-hued skull mask adorns his face. The horrid countenance of this red-robed interloper is a chilling reminder of the bloody plague that the party-goes have sought to hide from.
Enraged by the impudence of this guest, Prince Prospero demands to know his identity, but no one knows who this mysterious figure may be, and he is allowed to pass unmolested through each of the first six rooms of the ball. Entering the final room, the Prince’s patience reaches an end. He draws a dagger and approaches his unwanted guest. The skull-faced interloper turns and Prince Prospero falls dead with a scream. Their host’s death spurs the other nobles to act and they rush the strange guest, removing his robes and tearing off his mask. Only then do they discover, much to their horror, that there is nothing there.
One by one, the nobles fall dead, the dreaded disease having somehow made its way into the walls of the abbey.
It should be noted that the “Red Death” is a fictional disease. Many have suggested that it was perhaps inspired by tuberculosis, which Poe’s wife Virginia was suffering from at the time of this story’s creation and publication. Others have suggested that the disease was inspired by cholera or the bubonic plague, but no clear evidence exists as to exactly where Poe drew inspiration from for the horrible disease referenced in the title of this short story.
The most obvious theme of this story is that of man’s futile attempts to cheat death, but Poe never explicitly states that this story was meant to carry any lessons, leaving readers to take from it what they will and draw their own conclusions.
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