The Masque of the Red Death
Summary of Edgar Allen Poe’s Short Story
Setting the Scene
The story begins by letting us know that the Red Death has destroyed the countryside. It is the worst plague that has ever touched the land. The disease was quick and devastating with sharp pains, dizziness, bleeding from the pores, and finally death. The disease ran its course within half an hour.
Despite the destruction of his land, Prince Prospero continued to be merry and seek merriment. His countryside depopulated, Prince Prospero still finds a thousand healthy subjects in his court who he invites to join him in the seclusion of an abbey.
The Prince takes precautions to protect his merry group. They are locked inside the abbey so that none may enter and none may leave. The abbey was provisioned not only with adequate food but also with entertainers of all sorts.
The Location of the Masked Ball
After five or six months of seclusion, Prince Prospero decided to hold a great ball.
The narrator implies that in order for the reader to appreciate the nature of the ball, one must appreciate the nature of the duke and of his ‘imperial suite.’ His suite was made of seven rooms. Unlike most great suites where the doors slide away and the rooms become a great hall, the Duke preferred that the rooms remain distinct and that the view be hindered so that one must wander through the maze and receive a distinct impression in each room.
Each room was flanked by two Gothic windows. Each window had stained glass that matched the color of the room’s decor. For instance, there easternmost room was blue and so the stained glass was blue. The narrator describes the color scheme of each room in turn working from east to west. However, the most westerly room, the seventh, broke the pattern.
The decor in the seventh room was black, while the windows were ‘scarlet – a deep blood-color.’
The rooms did not contain any source of light. The only source of light in these rooms came from the brazier of fire that was placed outside the windows of each chamber. Thus the light was used to intensify the bizarre decor of each room.
The narrator states that the effect of the red light shining into the black room was ghastly and that few of the revelers were bold enough to enter the room.
The seventh room contained an additional unique element. In the room was a massive ebony clock. When the clock struck the hour it was deep and exceedingly musical and yet there was something peculiar about the sound that disturbed all that heard it. In fact, the sound was so remarkable that every time the clock rang out the hour the musicians ceased playing and the revelers paused in their activity.
When the clock finished chiming everyone would swear to themselves that they would not allow the clock to disturb them again for it was silly to allow it to upset them and yet when sixty minutes elapsed, the evening would once again be disrupted.
The Revelers
According to the narrator, the merry-makers dressed most bizarrely as was fitting the Duke’s tastes and the bizarre decor. The crowd partied with abandon in all but the seventh room.
However, when the clock strikes midnight, the crowd suddenly notices a person in a most unusual, disturbing costume. A costume, which, even this crowd of abandoned revelers knew, was the epitome of bad taste. This person was dressed as a victim of the Red Death.
Unmasking the Guest
Prospero was very upset and demanded that the crowd unmask the interloper. However, no one had the courage to touch the strange guest. The stranger walks out of the room that they are gathered in, which is the most easterly room, the blue room. He proceeds through each room in turn, followed by Prospero.
Finally, Prospero is so angered he draws his dagger and follows the figure into the seventh room. He is about to attack the stranger when the figure turns. Prospero gives a cry of alarm, drops the dagger, and falls dead.
In despair, the throng attacks the figure only to discover that it embodies nothing more than the Red Death itself.
He had come like a thief in the night...and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.
Find out more about Edgar Allan Poe at Suite101.
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