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The Importance of Empathy
Poe makes it abundantly clear throughout the text that Prospero’s keen eye for aesthetics and his gift for merry-making does little to hide his unsavory personality. His guests admire the beautiful colored rooms in the estate but they are unnerved by the eerie ambiance in the black room. They are intrigued by his eccentric ways but many question whether he is mad. They are entertained by his over-the-top masquerade ball, yet they are broken out of their amusement every sixty minutes when Prospero’s ominous clock announces the next hour. Poe gives the revelers these brief moments of clarity so that the reader can get a glimpse of Prospero’s dark side.
Poe identifies Prospero’s lack of empathy as the root of his inner darkness. It is natural, during times of distress and chaos, for people to look to those in charge for support, for guidance, and for help. Unfortunately, any citizen of the unnamed country in which “The Masque of the Red Death” is set would have been entirely out of luck if they had come to their prince for aid. Instead of offering support or using his funds to help his citizens fend off the deadly plague, Prospero abandons his people and hides with his court so that he, too, will not be infected. Poe seeks to condemn Prospero for his lack of empathy throughout the events of the text.
Money, Power, and the Illusion of Control
Prospero is unconcerned for his own safety in the midst of the Red Death. His arrogance can be attributed to his exorbitant wealth. He believes that his money gives him the power to do anything he wants, including avoiding contagion. Unfortunately for him, he is only partially correct. Prospero is fabulously wealthy and he easily turns his wealth into a means of self-defense and decadent self-indulgence. However, Prospero’s money and power does not give him the omnipotent control that he claims to possess. Instead, the plague is easily able to enter Prospero’s estate and claim the lives of Prospero and all of his guests. Poe condemns Prospero for his hubris during Prospero’s final moments. Right before he dies, Prospero calls for his companions to seize the mysterious guest so that he can be executed for infiltrating the castellated abbey. When nobody does so, Prospero charges at the masked figure with a dagger. Ultimately, it is Prospero and not the guest who falls. Poe undermines Prospero’s false sense of control by having him die immediately after he calls for the death of Death itself. As a result, Poe shows his readers that money and power does not equal complete control.
The Inevitability of Death
When “The Masque of the Red Death” opens, Prospero and his companions have sequestered themselves in one of Prospero’s walled estates so they can save their lives by avoiding the deadly plague known as the Red Death. As a result, one can read “The Masque of the Red Death” as an allegory about life and death and the powerlessness of humans to evade the grip of death. The Red Death, then, represents both literal and allegorical death. Poe essentially argues that no matter how beautiful the castle, how luxurious the clothing, or how rich the food, no mortal, not even a prince, can escape death’s clutches. By the end of “The Masque of the Red Death,” readers can determine that Prospero was only able to delay, not cancel, his inevitable decline. The Red Death infiltrates the fortified abbey anyway and mocks Prospero’s arrogant belief that he has dominion over the natural cycle of life. Instead, in the text’s final line, Poe writes that it is the Red Death, and death in general, that has unlimited sovereignty over all creatures on this earth, not the powerful men who think that they are in charge.
