Editing The Masque of the Red Death (section)

===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}}