How Is The Prince Prospero Reflected In The Masque Of The Red Death

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Death is a diva, time is the performance, and the human life is the stage. Edgar Allen Poe wrote “ The Masque of the Red Death”, which captures the intertwining motives of Prince Prospero, time, and the Red Death. From the start, we learn that the Red Death is an illness that ends lives in a scarlet pool of blood. With this knowledge, Prince Prospero takes one-thousand confidants to an iron-gated abbey that is walled off and secluded from the Red Death. Five or six months later, the Prince decides to throw a masquerade in the image of his favored, unusual fashion. Time takes the form of the grand ebony clock that demands the attention of each body by striking every hour with an ominous tune. As for death, this diva becomes a masked figure with a presence that unfurls among the mass of masqueraders. …show more content…

Time, the Red Death, and Prince Prospero pursue the end of each other. The Prince hunts down the Red Death through each colored suite, in the inky suite, the prince is finished by the sight of the unmasked Red Death. The death of Prospero ignites the deaths of the revellers that followed him. Red Death, the diva, made his presence known. Ends can not be avoided, this is the main theme of The Masque of the Red Death which revolves around seclusion to further push away the end. Humans attempt to delay the feared end of life through extremities such as seclusion, distraction, and denial. The Masque of the Red Death showcases the idea that seclusion is used to further push away the end. On the outside, Prince Prospero is the embodiment of fearlessness. With the Red Death at the edges of his shadow, he gives in to his conflicting terror. The prince does his best to avoid the issue of the