Editing The Masque of the Red Death (section)

==Analysis==
[[File:Aubrey Beardsley - Edgar Poe 4.jpg|thumb|Illustration by [[Aubrey Beardsley]], 1894–1895]]
Directly influenced by the first [[Gothic novel]], [[Horace Walpole]]'s ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'', in "The Masque of the Red Death" Poe adopts many conventions of traditional Gothic fiction, including the castle setting.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30313775 |title=The Castle of Otranto: The creepy tale that launched gothic fiction |website=BBC News |date=December 13, 2014}}</ref> The multiple single-toned rooms may be representative of the human mind, showing different personality types. The imagery of blood and time throughout also indicates corporeality. The plague may, in fact, represent typical attributes of human life and mortality,<ref>{{cite book|last=Fisher |first=Benjamin Franklin |editor-last=Hayes |editor-first=Kevin J.|chapter=Poe and the Gothic tradition|title=The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00haye_579 |url-access=limited |publisher= Cambridge University Press|date=2002|isbn=0-521-79727-6 |page= [https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00haye_579/page/n108 88] |doi=10.1017/CCOL0521793262.006}}</ref> which would imply the entire story is an [[allegory]] about man's futile attempts to stave off death (a commonly accepted interpretation).<ref name="rop">{{cite book|last=Roppolo |first=Joseph Patrick |editor-last=Regan |editor-first=Robert |chapter=Meaning and 'The Masque of the Red Death'|title=Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays|url=https://archive.org/details/poecollectionofc00rega |url-access=registration |location= Englewood Cliffs, NJ|publisher= Prentice-Hall, Inc.|date= 1967}}</ref>{{rp|137}} However, there is much dispute over how to interpret "The Masque of the Red Death"; some suggest it is not allegorical, especially due to Poe's admission of a distaste for [[didacticism]] in literature.{{r|rop|p=134}} If the story really does have a moral, Poe does not explicitly state that moral in the text.<ref>{{cite book|last=Quinn |first=Arthur Hobson|title=Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography|location=Baltimore|publisher= The Johns Hopkins University Press|date= 1998|isbn= 0-8018-5730-9|page= 331}}</ref>

Blood, emphasized throughout the tale, along with the color red, serves as a dual symbol, representing both death and life. This is emphasized by the masked figure&nbsp;– never explicitly stated to be the Red Death, but only a reveler in a costume of the Red Death&nbsp;– making his initial appearance in the easternmost room, which is colored blue, a color most often associated with birth.{{r|rop|p=141}}

Although Prospero's castle is meant to keep the sickness out, it is ultimately an oppressive structure. Its maze-like design and tall and narrow windows become almost burlesque in the final black room, so oppressive that "there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all".<ref>{{cite news|last=Laurent |first=Sabrina|title=Metaphor and Symbolism in 'The Masque of the Red Death'|work=Boheme: An Online Magazine of the Arts, Literature, and Subversion|date=July 2003|url=http://www.boheme-magazine.net/php/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=46|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060304131727/http://www.boheme-magazine.net/php/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=46|archive-date=2006-03-04}}</ref> Additionally, the castle is meant to be an enclosed space, yet the stranger is able to sneak inside, suggesting that control is an illusion.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peeples |first=Scott|chapter=Poe's 'constructiveness' and 'The Fall of the House of Usher' |editor-last=Hayes |editor-first=Kevin J.|title=The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00haye_579 |url-access=limited |publisher= Cambridge University Press|date= 2002|isbn= 0-521-79727-6 |page= [https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00haye_579/page/n206 186] |doi=10.1017/CCOL0521793262.012}}</ref>

Like many of Poe's tales, "The Masque of the Red Death" has been interpreted autobiographically, by some. In this point of view, Prince Prospero is Poe as a wealthy young man, part of a distinguished family much like Poe's [[foster parent]]s, the Allans. Under this interpretation, Poe is seeking refuge from the dangers of the outside world, and his portrayal of himself as the only person willing to confront the stranger is emblematic of Poe's rush towards inescapable dangers in his own life.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rein |first=David M. |title=Edgar A. Poe: The Inner Pattern|location= New York|publisher= Philosophical Library|date= 1960|page= 33}}</ref> [[Prospero]] is also the name of a central character in [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[The Tempest]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Barger|first1=Andrew|title=Phantasmal: The Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849|date=2011|publisher=Bottletree Books |isbn=978-1-933747-33-0|page=138}}</ref>

===The "Red Death"===
The disease called the Red Death is fictitious. Poe describes it as causing "sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores" leading to death within half an hour.

The disease may have been inspired by [[tuberculosis]] (or consumption, as it was known then), since Poe's wife [[Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe|Virginia]] was suffering from the disease at the time the story was written. Like the character Prince Prospero, Poe tried to ignore the [[Terminal illness|terminal]] nature of the disease.<ref>{{cite book|last= Silverman |first=Kenneth|title= Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance|publisher= Harper Perennial|date= 1991|isbn= 0-06-092331-8|pages= [https://archive.org/details/edgarpoe00kenn/page/180 180–181]|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/edgarpoe00kenn/page/180}}</ref> Poe's mother [[Eliza Poe|Eliza]], brother [[William Henry Leonard Poe|William]], and foster mother Frances had also died of tuberculosis. Alternatively, the Red Death may refer to [[cholera]]; Poe witnessed an [[epidemic]] of cholera in [[Baltimore, Maryland]], in [[1826–1837 cholera pandemic|1831]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Meyers |first=Jeffrey|title=Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy|publisher= Cooper Square Press|date= 1992|isbn= 0-8154-1038-7 |page= 133}}</ref> Others have suggested the pandemic is actually [[bubonic plague]], emphasized by the climax of the story featuring the Red Death in the black room.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Masque.html|website= Cummings Study Guides|title=The Masque of the Red Death}}</ref> One writer likens the description to that of a [[viral hemorrhagic fever]] or [[necrotizing fasciitis]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Molecules of Death|edition=2nd |last1=Waring |first1=R. H. |last2= Steventon |first2=G. B.  |last3= Mitchell |first3=S. C.|location= London|publisher= Imperial College Press|date= 2007}}</ref> It has also been suggested that the Red Death is not a disease or sickness at all but a weakness (like [[original sin]]) that is shared by all of humankind inherently.{{r|rop|pp=139–140}}