The Masque of the Red Death (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Edgar Allan Poe
- First Published: 1842
- Type of Plot: Gothic
- Time of Work: Unspecified, but probably the Middle Ages
- Setting: Unspecified, but probably a European country
- Principal Characters: Prince Prospero, The Red Death, Various courtiers of the prince
- Genres: Short fiction, Allegory, Gothic fiction
- Subjects: Life and death, Epidemics, Blood, Time, Mortality
The Story
The allegorical nature of this very brief and well-known Edgar Allan Poe story is indicated by the fact that its only named character is Prince Prospero and its only real conflict is the symbolic one between Prospero and the Red Death. The Red Death is a mysterious pestilence that has ravaged the countryside; no pestilence has ever been so fatal and hideous. It manifests itself on the victim with bleeding at the pores, especially on the face, and inevitably ends with death in the space of half an hour. After half of his people have died from this plague, Prince...
[The entire page is 1495 words long]
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