“And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”— Edgar Allan Poe | The Masque of the Red Death

To shield oneself from death is to hide from the inevitable. But death can will find you; after all, it finds all living beings at one point or another. Now, whether you make good of that surety, or try to lock yourself in a palace of ignorance is your choice I suppose. But remember: Death will always find you! In Edgar Allan Poe‘s “The Masque of the Read Death,” the protagonist find themselves confronted with death as it seeps through the fortress walls and into a sightly party.

Summary

“The Masque of the Red Death” tells the tale of an upper class party that has quarantined itself from the rest of society. A plague has swept the city (more than likely the bubonic plague). Prince Prospero, who is in charge of this party, has gone through great lengths of seclusion to keep his cohorts safe from this “Red Death.”

Poe writes of Prospero: “But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys” (Poe). The crowd is enthralled with the lavish masquerade party, Poe tells us. Yet, while they are gleefully enjoying their party, a masked figure arrives and begins moving toward a room that is otherwise off-limits to the guests. He dresses in a crimson costume and moves through the crowds unnaffected.

As Prospero follows the stranger, he becomes frightened by the figure’s ghostly movement. So, Prospero decides to engage this foreboding character. However, he gets more than he bargained. As a final act, the figure reveals nothing underneath its robe, and the sight of this invisible assailant kills Prospero outright.

Analysis

The Title

It is worthwhile to note that the word “masque,” that Poe used in the title, has a double meaning. The strange figure who appears is the “masque of the Red Death.” Meanwhile, other meanings stem from court entertainment in the 16th and 17th centuries. The masque itself was a form of festival, pageant, or play performed by “actors wearing masks.”

As stated by Britannica, the masque featured “costumed and masked persons” who “arrived at a social gathering to dance and talk with guests. The masque could both be a simple parade or a lavish spectacle and event.

Story Elements

Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death,” though portentous in tone, has lovely atmosphere and a frightful villain. The idea of hosting a gallant party while a plague sweeps across the country has a certain charm. Perhaps one that hits too close to home. In modern terms, the Red Death could certainly symbolize Covid. Yet, the fear of sickness has always been a pervasive fear in society. The quarantine put into affect in various countries definitely mirrors Prince Prospero’s holdout in the castle.

However, we also know the vile nature of hiding from death if only to save yourself from its clutches for a short while longer. Of course, Prospero learns this all too late when his fate is sealed at the finale. The innate flaws in his character (being narcissistic and wealthy) ultimately bring his life to a close. The story itself is about running from death–thematically–as a means to avoid its touch; but, as with most Poe stories, the protagonist suffers a horrible fate due to their own malicious intent.

The story ends beautifully. Poe writes: “He had come like a thief in the night … one by one dropped the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay … the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all” (Poe).

The characters had reveled in their security, high above the uncultured swine, and they fell fast and hard just as the rest. Death cannot be escaped whether you live in desperate, plague-laden penury, or you are in lavish luxury. It will find you, and it will claim you in the end.

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of the Red Death.” The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Arthur Hobson Quinn, Anchor Books, 1975, pp. 345-352.