Accordingly, when the stranger, masked as 'the Red Death,' walks through the room, he passes in close proximity to all of the revelers. Consequently, the inhabitants are locked inside the castle by the high walls and the gates of iron, and they are further enclosed during the ball by the circular, enclosed seven halls.

One method he often used for this effect was to have his stories take place in a closed circle where one has the impression of there being no escape. Many critics have looked for a consistent symbolic pattern in the seven rooms in which the ball is held, but Poe eschewed elaborate symbolic structures and, instead, worked for a unity of effect. Likewise, the people are entertained by the merriment of a 'masked' ball, described in almost surrealistic terms. The contrast of the gaiety within and the ravaging death outside, as described at the beginning of the story, contributes to the overall effect the author is after. In contrast, we hear that Prince Prospero, a name that connotes happiness and prosperity, has summoned a thousand of his 'lighthearted friends' from the nobility to join him in a 'castellated abbey' which has strong and lofty walls and 'gates of iron.' The prince has very carefully provided entertainment of all types, and they are all happy and secure within, while outside the 'Red Death' is rampaging.Īfter setting the tone, Poe next underscores his theme by suggesting the folly of these foolish people who think that they can escape death by such physical barriers as high walls and iron gates. Thus, in the short opening paragraph, Poe uses such words as devastated, pestilence, fatal, hideous, horror of blood, sharp pains, profuse bleeding, scarlet stains, victim, disease and death - and all these words, gathered together, create an immediate effect of the horror of death caused by the 'Red Death.' The disease is so deadly rapid that one is dead within thirty minutes after he is infected. The story opens with a recounting of a plague, the 'Red Death' it has long been devastating the country, and the narrator describes the process of the disease, emphasizing the redness of the blood and the scarlet stains. This is the method that Poe chose to achieve his unity of effect (see section on Poe's 'Critical Theories').

This essential theme is presented directly and with extreme economy through the plot, or narrative element. Everyman cries out to him: 'O Death, thy comest when I had thee least in mind.' Similarly, Poe's story deals with the inevitability of death and the futility of trying to escape death. In this ancient play, the main character is named Everyman and early in the play while walking down the road, he meets another character called Death. In 'The Masque of the Red Death,' Poe presents an age-old theme, a theme as old as the medieval morality play Everyman.

The masque of the red death short story