Death in Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

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Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe In the short story “Masque of the Red Death” By: Edgar Allen Poe he delivers the theme of age old inevitability of death and futility of trying to escape death, the setting of his story is based during a time when the bubonic “black” plague took over Europe. The black plague was a bacterium that survived in rats and rodents, human beings became infected when they got bitten by the fleas that lived on these rodents and rats; you knew you had gotten infected by several symptoms such as bleeding in the lungs, high fever and delirium but the most outstanding symptom was bubos. Now Bubos are painful lymph nodes that appear usually in the armpits, legs, neck or groin areas, if the infected individual was left untreated then the person usually died within two to four days. The story continues as Prince Prospero (meaning happiness and prosperity) summoned a thousand of his worthy friends to join him in his home that was surrounded by high walls and iron gates, he reinforced the idea they all would be happy and secure inside while the “Red Death” destroyed the world outside those gates as they knew it. Once all the invited guest were inside safe away from the red death ( so they thought) entertainment of all types was provided by their host Prince Prospero , a masked ball was thrown in honor of great entertainment. In this grand castle there were seven great halls each decorated a solid color: the first hall which was in the most Eastern part of the castle was painted blue with blue stained glass (Poe defined this hall to represent the beginning of life) as we continue westward in the home we travel upon the second hall which was painted purple with purple stained glass, the third hall ... ... middle of paper ... ... it a study of the psychology of guilt while a murder carefully conceals his crime but eventually cannot face his own fate and starts to break down and confess of his crime and the tell-tale heart in it similarities to his previous book the black cat this short story tells about a endeavor that tries to convince the reader of his sanity while describing a murder that he has committed he also wrote a set of poems such as the raven which talks about a talking raven who visits a distraught lover next on his list is a lovely poem called to Helen which is a fifteen line poem created in honor of Jane Stanard who happens to be the mother of a good childhood friend of his, lastly is the poem that was not published as its current name until 1843 Lenore was first published in 1831 as part of a collection named A Paean it theme is the death of a beautiful young woman.

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