Comparison of themes in "The Black Cat" and "The Masque of the Red Death

¶ … Poe

Through the creative and often garish work of Edgar Allen Poe many people have glimpsed symptoms of reality. Poe demonstrated an incredible sense of wordplay that could in fact have been describing a real scene or a real event, but that was guised in the anonymous. Within the two works, the Masque of Red Death and the Black Cat there is a sense of foreboding that is almost tactile, even in the translation of the modern reader. Though the stories differ in content and character they remain examples of Poe's well crafted ability to make the unbelievable believable as well as fantastic, simultaneously. Within these two works there is are similarities; they both express real life examples of the corruption of wealth and power upon men, one in a position of regional leadership and one in the position of a household, and they both starkly challenge two more extreme social problems seen in Poe's day, alcoholism and disconnection between those who serve and those who are served.

In the Masque of Red Death a story is told of a pampered prince who chose to separate himself from a persistent plague that was ravaging his people by locking himself up in a monastery which he converted into a den of luxury. The prince, called Prospero decorated the rooms of this palace fortress carefully and proceeded to live his life as if nothing were wrong, among his people, including holding a garish and elaborate masquerade ball, with many in attendance. The plague that had so troubled his people was significant in that is spread easily and covered the faces of the newly afflicted with a red mask of death and killed them within a matter of ten minutes. The ball was well attended and near its conclusion an unknown person attended who at first the onlookers believed to be playing a cruel joke on the party, as he was dressed and masked as if he were afflicted with the plague, yet upon further observation the man really was a plague victim and in attempting to unmask him the entire party was killed by the disease.

The mask of death distinctly challenges power and priviledge by stressing the real danger of separating ones self from those who serve you. The descriptive decadence of the temporary fortress of Prospero clearly demonstrates his wealth and power, as well as expressing in stark contrast the gore that must have been visited on the people he was supposed to protect and aide. The story specifically intones that the prince was not alarmed and had little care for the loss of half of his charge to the plague,

Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. 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.

The decadence of the masquerade ball that would end up being the prince and his courts undoing juxtaposed with the unnamed horrors that were likely afflicting his lesser subjects is also indicative of the fact that many of his kind, in truth during the spread of plague in Europe were said to do the same thing, move to the country and run from aiding the sick. Lastly the point of engendering the idea that alcoholism and in short inappropriate decadence ruled the day is the description of the isolation environement; "There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, 3 there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the 'Red Death.'"

The Black Cat is a slightly more plebian story, about a man who had a particular affinity for pets and who adopted many and shared this love with his patient and loving wife. The man developed severe alcoholism and his entire demeanor changed, as he went about cruelly attacking verbally and physically all who were close to him, including cutting out the eye of his previously cherished pet a very large and loving black cat and eventually hanging the cat to death by a tree limb. The mans alcoholism did not wane as it might have in a similar case but only got worse, and after the incident with the cat, the whole of his fortune was lost to a fire. His home having burned to the ground he continued to live through his anger self-loathing and alcoholism until he happened upon another cat who greatly resembled the first and hoping at first to make amends brought it home only to find it even more loathsome than the first animal. The cat developed a great affinity to him, and even developed a mark of the noose upon its breast. In a fit of rage the man attempted to kill the cat with an ax and was thwarted by his patient and loving wife, whom he killed instead and walled up in a false chimney in the cellar. When the police came to search his home the man rapped on the wall of the cellar and the cat, which had been mistakenly walled up with his dead wife cried out and gave away his crime.