The Masque Of The Red Death Literary Analysis

When an unstoppable epidemic spreads across the land, especially in a medieval era, there is often little hope for survival. Many try to flee from it, but most cannot, and those who can are merely delaying the inevitable. In the story “The Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe, the author, uses plot developments to drastically change the story’s initially positive atmosphere with a bleak one until the climax puts the final nail in the coffin. The story begins with Prince Prospero locking himself and a thousand friends away in order to escape the Red Death. The author makes the building that they are in seem masterfully crafted and impenetrable.
“This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric
yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within.”
This gives the reader the impression that the walls that surround the people are indeed secure. One would think that it is not possible for any infected person to get through the gates if it is welded shut. Also, If somebody wants to leave, there would be no reason to. The author describes the building as well-supplied and having plenty of entertainment.
“The abbey was amply provisioned… In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the Red Death… Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.”
If the abbey appears immune to invasion and has plenty of supplies, most if not all negative thoughts in the reader’s mind are gone.
In the abbey, there is a huge ebony clock that rings every hour. Each time it rings, the musicians of the orchestra temporarily cease their performance and the rest of the partygoers also pause whatever they are doing. Bits of negativity begin to arise in the reader’s mind when they find out that the “giddiest grew pale” during this moment and that the “aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation.” An observant reader would notice that perhaps things are not as happy as they seem. The partygoers might be realizing that, with each passing hour, the disease claims the lives of the people outside. They could also be thinking about their own eventual deaths. The clock chimes several times, and each time, they laugh and say that “the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion”, which turns out to not be true. “After the lapse of sixty minutes...there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as before.” This demonstrates that the partygoers fail to stop themselves from breaking composure each time the clock rings, confirming the fact that things do not seem
well. As the story inches closer to its climax, the final piece of the joyous atmosphere is destroyed when an intruder enters the party, made evident by the reactions of the attendees. “And the rumor of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise --then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.” Before, the guests seemed mildly displeased when the bell rang, but it would be gone shortly afterward. Now, the partygoers are experiencing concrete emotions that are not temporary, further worsening the mood. If the guests do not react in such a strong way, the appearance and description of the intruder are enough to make one worry.
“The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat… the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood --and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.”
This description no doubt symbolizes the intruder as the Red Death, which means that the people who think they had escaped it are now in jeopardy. Prince Prospero reacts to the intruder in a violent manner, going as far as brandishing a dagger and attacking them. “He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached...
to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter... turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry... the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death... one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over
all.”
The tragic irony of the Prince’s death, the deaths of the partygoers, and the author’s direct statement of the Red Death’s control over life turns the story into a bleak and forlorn wasteland. The partygoers originally seem safe and happy, but their happiness temporarily fades every time the ebony clock chimes. Eventually, a figure symbolizing the Red Death arrives and causes the death of both Prospero and the guests. The author decided to develop the plot in a way that gradually worsens the mood of the story until it is revealed that the safety and happiness of the party’s inhabitants are merely a facade. It is oddly fitting that Poe chose to do this; ignoring problems instead of solving them does not usually end well.