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Would you want Prince Prospero as a friend? Explain.
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Having Prince Prospero as a friend presents moral and practical dilemmas. On one hand, he offers protection from the "Red Death" by inviting friends to his secure abbey, providing lavish entertainment and comfort. However, his disregard for his kingdom's suffering and eventual failure to prevent the disease's spread inside the abbey highlight his irresponsibility and selfishness. Thus, while friendship with him might offer short-term benefits, it ultimately proves perilous and ethically questionable.
Absolutely not! He seems to me to be not only a terrible leader, but also a completely reprehensible person. When his country is faced with a deadly disease, the prince completely abandons his constituents and runs away to hide in a castle where he throws big parties and will not let anyone in. He ignores the suffering of his people and invites a thousand of his healthiest and most fun friends to his abbey. There, he plans entertainments, banquets, balls, and masques. The plan is to stay there, wait out the disease, and emerge, quite healthy and hale, after it has finished decimating the kingdom. If this is not the most irresponsible way a leader could handle a crisis, then I don't know what is. He just runs away! It's unconscionable, and I would not want to be friends with someone who behaves in this way. To be fair, I...
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don't want to die of the Red Death either, but I would not choose a friendship with Prince Prospero.
Prince Prospero from "The Masque of the Red Death" would make a great friend for a number of reasons. Firstly, being a friend of the prince means that you would be saved from the "Red Death" pestilence that is raging through the kingdom. Instead of living outside (and risking infection), the prince has invited all of his friends to live in the security of his castellated abbey.
Secondly, the prince is great at entertaining his friends. Inside his abbey, for instance, the prince has provided all of the "appliances of pleasure," including wine, musicians, and ballet dancers.
In addition, the prince ensures that all of his friends live in great comfort and splendor. This is shown clearly by the seven rooms of the abbey, each one uniquely decorated and containing even more entertainment than the last.
However, the Red Death does eventually get into the castellated abbey, meaning that any friends of the prince are sure to be infected. So while being friends with the prince is good in the short-term, it is deadly in the long-term.