Research Paper On The Masque Of The Red Death

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In “The Masque of the Red Death,” written just before his wife’s death from tuberculosis, Poe personifies Death as it enters a costume ball held by a wealthy young man at his palatial quarters and pursues him and his guests. Poe ostensibly might have coupled his personal experiences with death and his pre-estrangement life as a member of a wealthy family to show that no matter who you are, death cannot be avoided. Indeed, in “the Mask of the Red Death,” the uninvited guest takes the life of not only the wealthy Prince but the lives of the other revelers as well. The Red Death was a fictionalized plague; one of its symptoms was causing its victims to sweat blood. In reality, the first sign that Poe’s young wife, Virginia, had tuberculosis was