An Analysis of Poe's The Masque of the Red Death

The 'Masque of the Red Death' has multiple meanings, but where can we find a story that encompasses all the others and is complete enough to honor the author's uncanny unity in this beautiful prose work. It is in this success, that one may touch the genius of Poe himself.

It is irrelevant to question the idea of allegory - based on Poe's critical ideas about its use - for it is in the story itself that we must delve. Other tales or works by Poe and other writers are useful, but not necessary. To be sure "the Red Death" contains allegory, and of an explicit nature. And in this blaze of allegory we have symbolism woven throughout, but I believe it a mistake to assign a tangible pattern in the author's conscience life experience (Poe's lifetime) at the time of writing. Some for instance, have stated the belief that the disease of the Red Death is really symbolic of tuberculosis or cholera (because he experienced a "cholera outbreak"). Such speculation is outside the merit of the story proper, and has at best a vague relationship. Worse still, is assigning a motive as to why all the characters in the story meet their demise. (One person was silly enough to direct the whole meaning as an attack on the rich - who in their protective castellated abbey are not immune to the Red Death.) There is nothing in the story to support this, and at best it distracts the reader's attention away from other aspects conveyed throughout. Let us stay within the bounds of the writing itself, for here we shall find an incredible assortment of descriptively vivid details, even in the form of a short story.

The story begins: 'The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal or so hideous - blood was its Avatar and its seal - the redness and the horror of blood'. The initial foundation of the story follows, and we understand the motives for isolation, for the incurable death needs to be avoided or forgotten - at least in a sagacious fashion. Thus "ingress" (entrance) and "egress" (exit) are utilized to distance the Prince and his followers from the Red Death's threat. This results in the disease raging "most furiously abroad".