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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,...
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…
References
Poe, E. "The Masque of the Red Death" at EServer.org
Introduction Edgar Allen Poe was a 19th century American author who wrote gothic horror stories (as well as gothic poetry). Here, he delivers his theme that no one escapes death in his short story “Masque of the Red Death” through symbolism, setting, and narration. The colors of the room serve as symbols of life, with the red room serving as a symbol of blood and of the horror that awaits the
In Trifles, the country house where the plot takes place is also the scene of a murder. Mrs. Wright kills her husband over a "trifle," because he has killed her canary. The bird, as the house itself, symbolizes entrapment and prison-like life. The lonely country woman feels trapped in her role as a country farm wife, whose only concern must be the trifles of daily life, such as the preserves,
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.
He is a selfish man who cares only about his well-being and nothing about others who are dying from the red death. However, there are also literary scholars who say that this story is much more than what it appears to be. Poe may have meant something quite different about Prospero's actions. Says Canada, for example, while literary scholars have analyzed all of these aspects of Poe's work, they have
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
Darkness and Decay Within the Walls: Poe's Architecture Ligeia, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Masque of the Red Death present a gothic setting, within which the action of the tale takes place. Each of the houses is not only decaying, but somewhat bizarre. As the tale unfolds, an unhealthy relationship between the structure and its inhabitants is revealed. The story Ligeia takes place in two Gothic locations: first,