party to celebrate having escaped the Red Death.  During the party, however, Prospero spies someone whom he believes to be one of his guests who had the audacity to come to the party dressed in a Red Death costume.  He chases the figure from room to room until they reach the black room in the western part of the hall.  There, the figure turns towards Prospero and the Prince falls to the floor dead (climax).  He could not escape Death no matter how well he tried to barricade himself from the world.

The climax of this story occurs after Prospero has ordered his revelers to unmask the mysterious stranger who has appeared in their midst. The rising action has been the movement of Prospero and his guests through each of the different colored rooms, except for the very last room which frightens them all. Upon seeing this unknown "guest" in his horrific costume of death and blood, Prospero orders his other guests to grab this "blasphemer" and unmask him so he can be punished. The guests are too frightened to, so finally Prospero has to do it himself, after chasing the figure into the final room. The climax, then, is the turning of the figure to face Prospero, who now learns that the uninvited guest is the Red Death itself, which is there to kill Prospero and all of his revelers.

A major event is when the prince decides to lock himself and all of his courtiers in his castle to prevent the Red Death from reaching them.

One of the first important events (after the plague itself), is the beginning of the revelry.  Prince Prospero knows that his kingdom is in trouble.  A terrible plague called the Red Death is ravaging his people.  Instead of doing something about it, he takes all of his nobles and followers and they lock themselves in his castle.  They think they can protect themselves from the plague within, as everyone dies without.

When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys.

This incident is important because it demonstrates the prince’s greed and selfishness.  It also shows that the only people he values are his important friends.  The people of his kingdom mean nothing to him. 

As a result of the prince’s actions, the revelers have a few days of fun.  Yet their masquerade is not without turmoil, as an unexpected guest in the form of Death comes calling and interrupts the fun—killing everyone inside.  The message is that no one can escape death, no matter how rich.

The story “The Masque of the Red Death” ends when Death crashes the party and kills all of the guests.

The story is about Prince Prospero, a wealthy royal who spends more time worrying about himself than his kingdom.  Since the “Red Death,” a terrible plague, is wasting away his kingdom, he decides to lock himself and his courtiers away inside his caste where no one can hurt him.  They have a masquerade ball, enjoying themselves within the lavishly decorated halls while their people die outside.

At the end of the party, an uninvited guest arrives.  He is dressed like the Red Death, which the prince finds improper and insulting.  He demands that the guest account for himself.  Unfortunately, the prince’s hubris is his downfall.  The visitor is Death personified.

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall.

The prince dies.  All of the party guests die.  They have succumbed to their greed.  It was their own shortsightedness and vanity that was their doom, because they all gathered in one place and made themselves an easy target.

With this story, Poe sends a clear message to the rich and powerful.  Those with the means to do something have an obligation to do it.

If we interpret Prince Prospero's desire to avoid the terrible disease, the Red Death, as a basic desire to elude death itself, then the masked ball essentially ends with the lessons that one cannot escape or elude death and that it is mistaken pride that leads us to believe that we can.  Though his kingdom is in dire trouble, the prince decides to handpick his most healthy and fun courtiers to party with him in a far-away abbey that he owns and outfits to be impregnable.  He seems to believe that he is more powerful than death, that iron bolts and chains and gates can keep death away, that his wealth and status provide him the opportunity to do something no human being can do: hide from death. 

In the end, then, the prince runs through the series of seven rooms he has designed (rooms which seem to represent the span of a human life, ending with death in the red/black room with the ebony clock -- another symbol for mortality) toward the masked figure that represents the Red Death, and he dies instantly because "Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."  Death is a necessary and inescapable part of life, and no one is immune; therefore, it does hold dominion over all.  Despite everything the prince has done to shield himself from death, the ending of the ball (and the story) shows that it simply isn't something we can control, no matter how rich or prosperous we are.

When Prince Prospero encounters the horrible, blood-stained figure among his guests, he is enraged and determined to unmask the stranger. None of the bystanders, however, acted to seize the figure who moved with "solemn and measured step" through the various rooms of the Prince's abbey. The Prince chases after him, brandishing a dagger. When the figure arrives in the last room, he turns suddenly to confront the Prince. The Prince cries out, the dagger falls to the floor, and then the Prince himself falls dead. The guests rush in, attack the masked figure, and find to their horror that there is no person under the costume. The guests then fall dead, one by one, "each in the despairing posture of his fall."

In addition to the answer above, remember that Poe focused his fiction (and poetry) on the idea of a "unique and single effect." He believed that all elements in a piece should build tension (both in the story and in his audience) that was to be released at the climax, creating an emotional reacton in his reader. When the Red Death comes "like a thief in the night," a sense of dread should be palpable -- no one can evade death, and Poe wants his readers to make his readers feel the futility as deeply as his characters do.

The climax is the most intense moment of the story, and it lets us know how the main conflict of the story will be resolved. The suspense of the story builds to this moment of climax. In this story, the climax occurs when the Red Death is able to come in "like a thief in the night". This climax resolves the problem of death. No one can escape death, not even Prince Prospero and his wealthy friends. Poe sets the stage for this mysterious story beautifully, and we realize his message about death at the end.

The climax of the story is when the clock strikes midnight and the party goers stop their reverie and take notice of a guest that seemingly appeared at the party. He is dressed like the Red Death and the party goers do not find it comical. It is at this moment in time that they realize this is not simply a masked figure, but the Red Death himself.