Prince Prospero in the Masque of the Red Death

Prince Prospero in Edger Allen Poe's story " The Masque of the Red Death" is an interesting character that reveals much about Poe's views on nobility and the qualities these elitists exude. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the character Prince Prospero to demonstrate his fearfulness, reluctance and ignorance, three qualities that dominate the story's main character.

As Prince Prospero and his band of nobles try to escape the Red Death by shutting themselves away from the rest of society, they succumb to their greatest fears and are all killed by this mysterious spirited presence. Prospero, like many men, thinks he can avoid death or at least put it off. When the Red Death begins to kill most of the people in Prospero's kingdom, he attempts to use his wealth and possessions to escape the fate of everyman. The mere act of trying to escape death demonstrates the depth of Prince Prospero's fear of death. His lack of faith, along with the other thousand nobles, partying away as a ravenous plague approaches their lair, is epitomized by holding such an event while such serious events are happening outside the gates.

The fear is consuming Prince Prospero as the story progresses. As soon as the Red Death Masqued person is spotted, his paranoia begins to set in and the fear begins to capture his mind. When Prince Prospero sees the stranger, he is indignant at such an intrusion. The prince immediately instructs the stranger to be seized, but all are universally frightened to seize this Red Death. Infuriated, the prince draws a dagger and rushes 'hurriedly through the six chambers," but as he approaches the figure, his dagger stops, and he falls dead upon the black carpet. The other revelers fall upon the black "mummer" but to their "unutterable horror," they find nothing under the shrouds or behind the corpse-like mask. One by one, all of them drop dead. The "Red Death," Poe tells us, holds "illimitable dominion over all."

Considering the ending of this story reveals the reluctance that the Prince and his cast of elites portrayed. Prospero eventually overcomes his reluctance as he is the only one who approaches the ugly stranger, but this is only after much deliberation and attempts at getting his friends to do it for him. The party itself also demonstrates how Prince Prospero was reluctant to face not only the death of himself but a massive apocalyptic plague that had taken over the fictional land.

What Poe's story is truly expressing, is that Prince Prospero's ignorance is what is causing all of his problems. This main quality of the character drives the weird and macabre story that Poe is trying to inflict on his readers. Prospero is happy burying his head in the sand and letting others solve his problems for him. This mindset is the cause of all his fears as he knows nothing about the outside world and has shut himself off from the rest of society in an ignorant fashion.

Prince Prospero's ignorance is epitomized in his hurried attempts to seize the stranger and attack him with a dagger. A hasty attack performed by the prince suggests that he has no idea what is really going on and has now resorted to violence to solve his thirst for knowledge. Ignorance is usually followed by inane violence and Prince Prospero is no exception in this case. Poe's use of placing such an ignorant character as Prospero and entitling him with nobility may suggest Poe's contempt for the ignorance of the elitists in his day.