The Theme Of Death In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque Of The Red Death
Every day, everyone fears death. In his short story The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe emphasizes the inevitable nature of death. Prince Prospero, the main character, is a deceitful and misleading ruler who pretends he’s helping his country while his people are dying of the disease, the “Red Death.” In fact, he’s just trying to keep his people safe and help them. Poe ultimately uses symbolism to personify a disease, to show that death is inevitable regardless of social status.
From the outside, it is clear that Prince Prospero loves having fun. Prospero seems to be all about having fun and enjoying blissful drinking. Prospero does little else. He is too busy thinking of solutions for those problems, which would make him a drag. This is evident in his sharing of his philosophy on issues. He says that the “external world could take its own care.” It was foolish to grieve, to think, in the meantime. There were bumkins, there weren’t improvisatori and ballet-dancers. There were also musicians. Prospero turns to alcohol to enjoy good times when times are hard. His attempts to escape death fail, and eventually everyone must die. Prospero’s foolish efforts to escape death don’t just make him look weak but also make him a ruler. He learns his lesson in the end. The end is near. The large ebony clock in “The Masque of the Red Death”, shows how casualties escalate quickly. The clock was the reminder that people were about to die. Everybody continued their work even after the clock stopped chiming, which symbolises how death is not the same for everyone. Poe helps readers understand that death does not have any rules or boundaries. It can conquer all. Prospero died after Prince Prospero confronts “The Read Death” in the final moments of his life. This is how stupid Prospero’s friends and family thought they could escape their death. The inevitable death is inevitable. Their plan to escape it was always going to fail. Poe’s decision to leave Prospero to death last demonstrates that regardless of your social status, death doesn’t segregate the world.
