The Masque of the Red Death

Extremely relevant now, during the COVID-19 pandemic! Place Trump, or any other ugly, wealth and power hungry despot, in the place of Prince Prospero, and you've basically got the system we have now in the U.S.. The wealthy get protection the rest of us can only dream of. But in this story, the Prince and his 1,000 chosen ones enter a world that I could only dream of! Comeuppance! For me, in this context, the "spectral image" is a hero! Wish we had someone like him now...

"And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death."

This short story is hands down one of my favorite Poe stories! I love the symbolism and imagery in this tale. Basically, the "Red Death" is a plague that is wreaking havoc on the town in the story and Prince Prospero decides to lock himself, and many of his friends, away in his home. He ultimately ends up hosting a very grand masquerade party and while him and his people are lavishly partying it up within the confines of his sanctuary, everyone else is dying a terrible death. There are seven uniquely decorated rooms in his house where the party-goers roam while the celebrations never cease; and in the last room (decorated in black and red) there is an ebony clock which has a very eery and distinct chime that marks the end of an hour. When the clock chimes, everyone inexplicably pauses and the music stops until the clock is quiet. When midnight arrives, everyone is confronted with a terrifying figure, the "Red Death". As you can imagine, some very unfortunate and gruesome things follow the appearance of this figure.

I feel like the main point in this story can really be up to anyone's interpretation. But for me, the message that is loud and clear is that you can't cheat death and that it will creep up on you (much like the "Red Death" figure) no matter what. The clock in the story is symbolic of our internal clocks that are ticking away. One thing in the story that I didn't entirely catch the meaning of initially was the seven rooms. Upon further research, I learned that some believe that the seven rooms that were featured in Poe's story are to be interpreted as the seven stages of life. To me, that makes sense after reading about the rooms in this tale. At any rate, no matter what Edgar was trying to prove, this story was an astonishing one that vividly plays out in my head every time I read it.