Analysis Of The Masque Of The Read Death By Edgar Alan Poe

Edgar Alan Poe wrote among many short stories, The Masque of the Read Death. Although the title sounds horribly eerie, the story itself succeeded in becoming even creepier. Disease, known as the Read Death, struck a kingdom, killing off many subjects very gruesomely. The ruler, a prince known as Prospero, did nothing to assist in treating those ill, or preventing others from contracting Read Death. Instead, he ran, hiding away in a secluded castle, with noblemen, and entertainers. After six months of hiding, Prospero grew bored, and decided to host a masquerade ball. The ball took place in a suite, containing seven rooms of different colors: purple, blue, green, orange, white, violet, and black. Poe described the black room as black like death, with crimson windows like blood, and a big old black clock, that’s chimes struck terror into the hearts of the guests. At midnight, the clock struck as it usually did, however, a guest joined the party who did not have an invitation. Unsure of the identity of the party-crasher, Prospero ordered his immediate capture, but all the party guests remained too frightened to engage the guest. Eventually, Prospero followed him to the eerie black room, his dagger drawn, ready to plunge it into the stranger’s chest. However, the guest, the Red Death whirled around to face him, and Prospero fell upon the ground dead. One by one, each guest faced the same fate spilling their blood across the halls, and throughout Prospero’s brightly colored halls, until everyone lay dead. The clock died, the candles went out, and in Poe’s words, “Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” Poe had a reputation for writing grim, creepy, and sad stories. …show more content…
He certainly lived up to his reputation considering how depressingly he wrote The Masque of the Red Death. Trent Lorcher, an educational writer gave several examples of how Poe used symbolism in his analysis of Poe’s short story. According to Lorcher, The Red Death represented the inevitability of death, the castle represented man’s attempt, but ultimate failure to prevent deaths, and the clock represented the countdown to death. He also presented an interesting idea of Prospero representing the end of feudalism, which was the government system during medieval times. Belle Wang, a writer with an education website called Grade-Saver, had a different opinion on who or what Prospero symbolized. Wang assumed that because they both had the same name, Prospero represented Shakespeare’s Prospero from his play, The Tempest. Wang gave examples …show more content…
During that era, people moved further away from romanticism, enjoying more realistic stories, as well as Poe’s darker tales. According to the Pabook Library Database, Poe may have settled with darker literature, because of his alcoholism, and excessive gambling. However, Poe’s remarkable story, The Masque of Red Death, though incredibly dark and depressing, has entertained audiences for the past couple hundred years. The Masque of the Red Death, featured a unique dark and eerie theme throughout the story. Like many of Poe’s works, it had a very dreary depressing ending, where nobody lived, and the Red Death prevailed. Ironically, Prince Prospero built the castle to “lock out” the Red Death. However, it had the opposite effect. Instead, the Red Death locked them all inside, in death, to forever lie rotting throughout the seven-room