Both stories told of men who dared to escape their fate, whether it was inevitable death from a plague or the dire consequences of his action, these men seek means to remove themselves from their environment and distance themselves from their actions. Prince Prospero used his wealth as a shield, and he honestly thought he managed to bar Death from his gates. Death cannot be and will never be denied. There are no doors strong enough and no walls high enough to keep it out. Justice, on the other hand, will always be served. It matters not that what you did, whether it was right or wrong, you will receive what's coming to you. The man felt more the relief over the loss of the cat, than the grief...
This perverse sense caused his madness to grow, fed it until it mirrored sanity, still in the end, he became caught in his web and he did not escape his fate.
Poe as a writer dwelt much in madness and morbidity of man, he enjoyed writing about loss, pain and lies, as these were the emotions he were most familiar with. Fueled by alcohol, his works were bordering on the psychotic, as when the man who killed his wife found the natural course of disposing her body by encasing her inside the walls of their house. However, an underlying thread of truth runs underneath each story, and the moral lessons are there, ready to grab you by the neck and shake some sense into you.
