How Is Prince Prospero A Good Leader

Edgar Allan Poe’s Prince Prospero is a wealthy and selfish man. While the plague strikes the nation, he locks himself and his friends away in his castle in order to evade death. In the meantime, his people are suffering a painful, bloody death outside of the castle. Prospero is very cowardly for hiding away in his castle; a brave man and a good leader would never turn his back on his people in this way. When “The Masque of the Red Death” begins, a terrible plague is raging the countryside, killing many people and causing great fear and suffering. A strong leader would face adversity for his people no matter what the cost. A great leader would also try to comfort his people in such terrible times, but Prince Prospero proves that he is not great leader by turning his eyes and mind away from those suffering. “When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and lighthearted friends… and with these retired to the deep
Getting others to engage in these indulgences also skews his true nature. His friends are focused on what Prince Prospero offers by way of music, dancing, food, and extravagance instead of what they should be concerned with — the fact that he is a coward and not fulfilling his duties as a leader. The masquerade isn’t just in the form of a ball; it’s also in his ability to mask what is happening outside from those inside his castle. While death consumes his nation, the “apartments [of his castle] were densely crowded, and in them beat feverishly the heart of life” (377). A true coward attempts to divert attention from his cowardice, and Prospero does this very well through “the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not little of that which might have excited disgust”