It was near the end of their fifth month there that Prospero asked his friends to all to come together for a dancing party, a masquerade. All these were within the wall, and within the wall they would be safe. Prospero had supplied everything they needed for pleasure. They would leave the outside world to care for itself. Here they could forget the sickness, the Red Death. The gentlemen, after they had entered, brought fire to heat the iron of the gate to make them close so firmly that nobody could open them. This was a large and beautiful stone building he had planned himself. When half the people of his land had died, he called to him a thousand healthy, happy friends, and with them went far away to live in one of his palaces. And the sickness lasted, from beginning to the end, no more than half an hour.īut Prospero, the ruler of that land, was happy and strong and wise. The bright red spots upon the body and especially upon the face of the sick man made other men turn away from him, afraid to try to help. Then there was bleeding through the skin, though it was not cut or broken - and then, death! There were sharp pains, and a sudden feeling that the mind was rushing in circles inside the head. Blood was its mark - the redness and the horror of blood. No sickness had ever been so deadly - so great a killer - or so fearful to see. The Red Death had long been feeding on the country. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Also that justice will always take its course and no one person is powerful enough to avoid it.We present the short story 'The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allen Poe.

I also interpreted this as a moral Poe is trying to get across that being you cannot escape death and that it will find you no matter how hard you are attempting to evade it. This makes it ironic and just that the prince runs toward and is killed by the embodiment of the thing he was hiding from.

Instead of being a leader and attempting to cure or at very least aid the sick, the prince locks himself away. As the city is pledged with the disease of red death, Prince Prospero barricades himself and others close to him within his residence. His death could be connected to the theme of Justice.

In the Masque of Red Death this quote describes the death of Prince Prospero as he approaches the strange intruder. ‘’ There was a sharp cry –and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero.’’ – The Masque of the Red Death

The masque of the red death quotes