Fear In The Masque Of The Red Death

Words: 507
Pages: 3

In Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Masque of the Red Death”, the fear of death is evident when the Prince and his guests lock themselves inside the Prince’s castle to hide from the rapidly spreading disease, the revelers nervous reaction to the chiming of an ebony clock, and their reaction to a deathlike figure. Prince Prospero locks himself and his friends in his castle to escape the disease, and holds a party after 6 months of isolation. Every hour during the ball, an ebony clock sounds, indicating the hour pass by and death growing nearer. At midnight when an ebony clock chimes, a deathlike figure appears and finally everyone dies. To illustrate the story, the “Red Death” spreads rapidly throughout the country killing everyone in its path, leaving …show more content…
This example shows that when the ebony clock chimes, everyone stops what they are doing, and stands in place recalling what they did to escape death. Equally important, another way fear of death was evident within the story is through the revelers reaction to the deathlike figure. When the ebony clock strikes 12, a deathlike figure appears. The author states, “But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock;...are many individuals in the crowd who is finding leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which arrested[arrests] the attention of no single individual before.” (Poe 8). This evidence indicates that when the ebony clock chimes at 12 o’clock, the revelers start to notice the presence of the deathlike figure. In “The Masque of the Red Death” the fear of demise is in the front of everyone’s mind, by locking themselves inside the castle, their nervous reaction to the chiming of the ebony clock, and their reactions to the presence of figure concealed behind a mask dressed like