Anthropomorphic Personification: The figure in the Red Death costume turns out to be the Red Death itself.It's worth noting when Masque was first published in 1842 it carried the subtitle 'A Fantasy', which seems to indicate Poe didn't want anyone digging too deep into the meaning. On the other hand, Poe was noted for his disdain of over-analysis, so others advise just taking it as a straightforward horror story. Allegory: Some scholars read the tale as one of these for the progression of life, with each successive colored room representing another stage (fittingly, Prospero dies in the final chamber, which is draped in black).

Sounds like a regular trip down Poe avenue, no?Īnd darkness and decay and the Red Tropes held illimitable dominion over all. However, close reading of the text reveals a story chock-full of symbolism and thoughts on the nature of death and life.

On the surface it appears to be a relatively simple, straightforward story compared to the heavy likes of The Fall of the House of Usher and ' The Pit and the Pendulum'. When the last guest expires, the clock stops, the lights go out, and 'Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all'. except the Red Death, now in their very midst. The frightened and angry revelers strip off the figure's costume to find nothing underneath it at all. Outraged at this show of poor taste, Prospero chases the figure into the final room - and promptly drops dead. Just at midnight, the guests notice a strange figure among them, costumed like a corpse who has died of the Red Death. The final room is black, with blood-red windows, and has a large clock in it. One night, Prospero decides to hold a masquerade ball in a procession of differently colored rooms. Well stocked and with lots of entertainment, they plan to ride out the plague in style. Not wanting to be troubled by the sight of dying peasants, Prospero sequesters himself and a thousand of his closest friends inside one of his secluded abbeys. The onset of the disease is marked by massive bleeding from the pores, especially the face, followed by death within half an hour. A horrible plague called the Red Death is ravaging the countryside. Prince Prospero's home country isn't doing too well. Poe rewrote and revised the tale before publication in Broadway Journal in July 1845 with its now-familiar title. 'The Masque of the Red Death' is one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories, first appearing in Graham's Magazine in May 1842 as 'The Mask of the Red Death'.

The masque of the red death text