By not accepting personal responsibility for our circumstances, we greatly reduce our power to change them. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Prince Prospero attempts to escape death behind his secluded abbey walls. Prince Prospero fights for power against a formidable, relentless enemy. Edgar Allan Poe encompasses the human’s natural desire for power by placing the power in the inevitable grip of death, portraying the message that some things are out of our control.
“THE “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous” (Poe 3). The wealthy Prince Prospero summons a “thousand knights and dames of his court” to his secluded abbey (Poe 3). The men weld the doors shut to avoid exposure to the plague; …show more content…
The real power lies in the hands of death and time. For example, “When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys” (Poe 3). Prospero uses his power to secure himself and those worth saving from the unstoppable pestilence. Prince Prospero struggles to gain power back over his society. Once more, the narrator calls out Prince Prospero’s weakness, “It was then, however, that Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all” (Poe 9). His struggle is displayed through his actions in a moment of distress. Prince Prospero battles for life and can not accept defeat over a more powerful, undeniable opponent. Moreover, Zapf states, “Also, within the self- created insular “paradise” of the prince--- which is at the same time the prison-house of his bizarre imagination--- there is implicit in its very conception the presence of the counter forces of destruction and negativity which are ostensibly shut out from it” (Zapf). Zapf recognizes Prince Prospero’s desire to seek power over death and time by shutting them out. The “paradise” is the prince’s safe place, inside the abbey, he expresses his insane creativity through decor, but the abbey also acts as a prison allowing the Red Death to entrap the
“THE “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous” (Poe 3). The wealthy Prince Prospero summons a “thousand knights and dames of his court” to his secluded abbey (Poe 3). The men weld the doors shut to avoid exposure to the plague; …show more content…
The real power lies in the hands of death and time. For example, “When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys” (Poe 3). Prospero uses his power to secure himself and those worth saving from the unstoppable pestilence. Prince Prospero struggles to gain power back over his society. Once more, the narrator calls out Prince Prospero’s weakness, “It was then, however, that Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all” (Poe 9). His struggle is displayed through his actions in a moment of distress. Prince Prospero battles for life and can not accept defeat over a more powerful, undeniable opponent. Moreover, Zapf states, “Also, within the self- created insular “paradise” of the prince--- which is at the same time the prison-house of his bizarre imagination--- there is implicit in its very conception the presence of the counter forces of destruction and negativity which are ostensibly shut out from it” (Zapf). Zapf recognizes Prince Prospero’s desire to seek power over death and time by shutting them out. The “paradise” is the prince’s safe place, inside the abbey, he expresses his insane creativity through decor, but the abbey also acts as a prison allowing the Red Death to entrap the