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Edgar Allan Poe’s 1842 short story “The Masque of the Red Death” tells the tale of a wealthy prince named Prospero who locks himself and 1,000 of his companions inside a fortified palace in an attempt to avoid a plague. As a result, the text’s central conflict revolves around Prospero’s ultimately unsuccessful plot to cheat death by avoiding the contagious and deadly disease. It is a cautionary tale about what happens when people, particularly those of power and privilege, claim to have control over the natural cycle of life.
The inciting incident of the story occurs after the outbreak of a deadly plague known as the Red Death. When the story opens, the Red Death has already claimed half of the country’s population. Instead of using his exorbitant funds to aid his subjects, Prince Prospero takes his court to wait out the plague in one of his luxurious castellated abbeys. Prospero’s decision to abandon his people reveals his inherently selfish nature and establishes him as the text’s flawed protagonist, one through which Poe will highlight the story’s themes. “The Masque of the Red Death” is an allegory about the inevitability of death but it is also a story about morality and empathy. Through Prospero, Poe condemns unjust rulers who do not value the lives of the common people.
The story’s rising action is dedicated to the lavish masquerade ball that Prospero throws for him and his guests after they have been sequestered at his estate for about six months. Prospero decorates seven rooms in his estate in monochrome colors (blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black) with corresponding stained-glass windows for the occasion. The courtiers are delighted by Prospero’s eccentric taste and staggering wealth. However, Poe writes that many of the guests feel that Prospero’s estate is so decadent and over-the-top that the splendor borders on the grotesque, indicating that some find Prospero’s hedonistic tendencies problematic. However, Poe does not absolve the courtiers from any blame because they all participate in and depend on Prospero’s opulence, even those who are wary deep down.
The most significant instance of rising action occurs when the mysterious guest arrives at the masquerade. Prospero and his guests are stunned that someone managed to get past the gates but their bewilderment soon gives way to fear and outrage when they notice that the figure is wearing a mask that resembles a victim of the Red Death. Prospero is outraged that this new guest is mocking his designs to avoid the disease so he chases the mysterious guest through all seven rooms. He begins in the blue room and culminates the chase in the black room, which all partygoers have so far avoided because of its ominous and hellish ambiance. This moment is ripe with symbolism; Prospero and the mysterious guest travel from the blue room, which represents birth, to the black room, which represents death. As a result, Prospero and the mysterious guest essentially complete the natural cycle of life.
At the climax of the text, Prospero drops dead the moment he catches up to the mysterious guest in the black room. As a result, readers are able to determine that the mysterious guest is not a person at all and is, instead, the personification or the essence of the Red Death itself that has finally come to claim the man who arrogantly thought that he had enough money to cheat death. Prospero dies of his own hubris inside the very estate that he claimed was impenetrable to disease and destruction.
As the falling action unfolds, Prospero’s couriers storm into the black room to confront the mysterious guest and defend their prince. When they arrive, they are horrified to discover that there is nobody underneath the guest’s cloak and bloody mask. Unfortunately for them, they have very little time to process such an astonishing sight because they all succumb to the Red Death and die almost instantly. Poe concludes “The Masque of the Red Death” by writing that, in the end, the Red Death has “dominion” over all. Here, Poe reminds his readers that death and disease are inevitable and have infinite power over the mere mortals who claim to defy them.
