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Wealth does not exempt you from hardship.
When “The Masque of the Red Death” opens, Poe informs the reader that a fatal disease known as the Red Death has been running rampant through the unnamed country where Prospero, the text’s protagonist, is the prince. The reader likely assumes that Prospero is in despair given that his subjects are dying at such an alarming rate. However, Poe writes that Prospero is not disheartened at all and is, instead, “happy and dauntless and sagacious.” Readers can soon determine that Prospero is confident and unbothered by the plague because he feels that he has enough money to keep himself safe. Poe solidifies this aspect of the prince’s character because the name “Prospero” is meant to evoke the word “prosperity” or “prosper.” However, by the end of the text, Prospero and his 1,000 wealthy companions all die while attending an opulent masquerade ball at Prospero’s isolated estate. The timing of their deaths is significant because they all perished whilst participating in what can only be described as an over-the-top and gaudy display of their own financial status. Through the deaths of Prospero and his court, Poe reminds his readers that wealth and good fortune do not exempt people from universal experiences such as pain, death, and disease.
Dark times can bring out the worst in humanity.
Sometimes, tragic events can bring out the best in people. Other times, it brings out the worst. The latter is certainly the case for Prospero and the 1,000 members of the nobility that make up his court. Prospero and his court flee to a castellated abbey in an effort to avoid contagion. Their sense of safety is heightened by the seemingly impenetrable walls that encase the estate. They weld the gates shut so that none of them can leave the grounds and get infected. However, the gates also stop the common people, who do not have the means to isolate themselves, from getting in. Prospero and his guests are content to leave the rest of Prospero’s subjects to their own devices, claiming that the rest of the country will simply have to fend for themselves. To make matters worse, Poe writes that the inhabitants of the castellated abbey feel that it is foolish and pointless to grieve the lives lost to the Red Death. Their disregard for the pain and the suffering that is running unchecked through their country is especially sinister and cruel given that they are waiting out the disease in a grand estate stocked with food, drink, entertainment, and supplies.
The cycle of life cannot be altered.
At some point, everyone must die. It is a dark thought and an unsettling one but it is also true. All people, regardless of status or money or background, will reach the end of their life cycle at some point. Poe argues that to pretend otherwise is foolish through the actions of Prospero and his court in “The Masque of the Red Death.” Prospero and his 1,000 guests all felt that they had the means to cheat death. The walls of their fortress were too high, too impenetrable. Their food supply was too plentiful, too rich. They had wine and entertainment and beauty and all the comforts that money can provide. However, in the end, the Red Death entered the estate with ease, causing them all to confront their allotted life cycle just like everyone else. Prospero and his guests die a bloody death at the hands of the personification of the very disease that they sought to avoid. As a result, “The Masque of the Red Death” is a reminder that the cycle of life cannot be modified. Poe solidifies this central idea by having the personification of the Red Death enter Prospero’s estate at midnight. Midnight represents the cyclical nature of life and death because it both marks the end of the day and the start of the next one.
