Nature and men have always been in conflict. Even though humans are part of Nature, we see ourselves as entities unrelated to it. Since the prehistory, we have been using Nature at our favor mostly to feed ourselves. Nowadays, we are really taking advantage of it for futile uses and ruining it with our pollution. Nature’s destiny, though, has not always been seen as determined by human actions. There was a period in which Nature was considered more powerful than humans, and the Dark Romantic genre was created to highlight this idea. An example of Dark Romantic literature is “The Mask of Red Death”. The mask of Red Death is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe who took inspiration from the Black Death, a plague that devastated Europe between …show more content…
The prince, indignant, asks to the figure to reveal himself but he doesn’t answer and starts walking towards the black room where Prince Prospero tries to kill him. But as soon as the Prince touches him, the figure disappears and Prospero falls dead on the ground. Immediately everybody at the party falls on the ground and die, the clock stops working and the candles blow out. The Masque of Red Death is an allegory for the conflict between humans and nature, life and death. The name of the Prince is Prospero, this name recalls the word prosperous, which comes from Latin and means wealthy and successful but, it can also be interpreted as alive. The Prince is the main character and represents the human’s side of the conflict. The seven rooms symbolize the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, avarice, pride, sloth, vainglory and wrath. Most of these sins, such as gluttony, lust, and avarice are strictly related to money and wealth, so rich people are more prone to commit them. The chambers can also signify seven different stages of life: you can’t see the next one, until you are living it. As a matter of fact, the last one is black, like death. The white clock represents a reminder to the guests that nobody can escape Death; they tried to