He orders to lock the gates of the palace so no disease could enter the palace, and ignores that his people are dying of the disease.Īfter some months, Prince Prospero throws a masquerade party along with some other wealthy aristocrats. Even though the disease is quickly spreading in the country, Prince Prosper does not appear to be worried about it. The victims of the disease quickly die in a horrible state. A disease named Red Death plagues the whole country.

The story opens with the account of the plague in a fictional country. Poe has a distaste for morality, and if there is any moral lesson in the story, it has not been explicitly stated. Some assume the story should not be interpreted as an allegory, as it will make it didactic. There are many disputes over the interpretation of the short story. The plague symbolizes the typical characteristics of human life and death, which makes the story an allegory of man’s useless attempt to prevent death. In the short story, there is an imagery of blood and time which shows the corporeality. The many single-toned rooms of the castle symbolize the human mind and show different types of personalities. In the story, Poe employed many traditional elements of Gothic fiction that also include the castle setting. The story “The Masque of the Red Death” has been directly influenced by The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic novel by Horace Walpole. This story has been eluded by many other literary works. Since then, the story has been adapted in many different forms, including a film in 1964. Initially, the story was published in Graham’s Magazine in May 1842. The readers attempt to find the true nature of the disease. Various interpretations of the story have been presented by critics and readers. These stories are often analyzed as an allegory that shows the inevitability of death. The short stories of Edgar Allan Poe are written in the tradition of Gothic fiction.

After confronting the stranger, Prosper dies, and the guests also die. In the middle of the party, a mysterious figure enters the party in a disguise of the victim of Red Death visits each of the rooms. Along with many other nobles, he hosts a masquerade ball in seven differently decorated rooms. The story is an account of Prince Prospero, who tries to avoid the dangerous plague, the Red Death, to hit his abbey. “The Masque of the Red Death” was published in 1842 by an American writer Edger Allan Poe.

The masque of the red death book