The Masque of the Red Death explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Death and Mortality

  The Red Death personifies the inescapability of death, claiming all regardless of wealth or status.

• The Supernatural and the Gothic

  The mysterious figure, the eerie clock, and the blood-tinted black chamber create a Gothic atmosphere of terror.

• Isolation and Alienation

  Prospero's attempt to isolate himself and his court from the plague ultimately fails, highlighting the futility of escape.

Characters to notice

• Prince Prospero

  The prince who retreats from the Red Death with his court, hosts the masked ball, and dies pursuing the mysterious figure.

• Unknown Narrator

  The narrator describes the events of the masquerade and the appearance of the Red Death.

Key passages

• “The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood.”

  A deadly plague called the Red Death has ravaged the land, marked by bleeding and rapid death.

  Establishes the setting and the nature of the plague.

• “But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and lighthearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys.”

  Prince Prospero, confident and clever, gathered a thousand healthy friends and secluded himself in a fortified abbey to escape the plague.

  Introduces Prospero's attempt to evade death.

• “The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet—a deep blood color.”

  The seventh room was draped entirely in black velvet, but its windows were blood-red, creating a ghastly effect.

  Describes the ominous black and red chamber.

• “It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused revery or meditation.”

  A large ebony clock in the black room chimes each hour, causing the revellers to pause in unease and grow pale.

  Highlights the clock as a symbol of mortality and time.

• “And the rumor of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise—then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.”

  Whispers about a strange figure spread, and the crowd's reaction shifts from disapproval to terror and disgust.

  Describes the arrival of the Red Death figure.

• “The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat.”

  The figure was tall and thin, dressed in funeral clothes, with a mask that looked exactly like a corpse's face.

  Details the appearance of the mysterious mummer.