Masque of the Red Death Reflection

Category: Death, Fiction, Masque Of The Red Death

Last Updated: 19 Apr 2023

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The Confliction on the Page In the short story "The Masque of the Red Death", by Edgar Allen Poe, the main conflict is the "Red Death" arrives at Prince Prospero's Masque, and kills everyone. At Prince Prospero's ball the guests in attendance all partied in a castellated abbey which had seven rooms in which the party was held. During the middle of one of the festivities a strange figure came into the room and the bold energy and hype immediately died down to the point of where you could here a pin drop on the floor.

At this point the red death has entered the room but nobody knows it yet, Poe writes," The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. " (Poe 87) This shows that the people in attendance do not know it is the red death yet, until they see the first sign of the Red Death's presence n the people, which angers the prince. When the prince discovers that it is the red death, he pulls a dagger from his belt and follows the corpselike figure through the rooms to the last unlit room, the one that had drapes of black velvet.

The prince attempts to stab the ghoulish figure but his plan is foiled: "…having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry-and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Price Prospero. " (Poe 88) the reader then sees that the prince died due to him being foolish rather than him getting the Red Death disease. The red death then sickened the whole group and everyone dies. This shows how the Red Death was the main conflict in the story due to the fact that it keeps killing everyone.

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