Essay on The Red Masque Death by Edgar Allan Poe: A Review

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The Red Masque Death; Bubonic Plague

The Red Masque Death is a poem based on the original disease called “The Black Plague” or also known as the “Bubonic Plague”, and was written by a poet named Edgar Allen Poe. Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19th, 1809. He was an American writer, poet, editor, literary critic, and considered part of the American Romantic Movement also. Poe is best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. Poe has written many poems through anger, depression, and fear. Poe is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, which resulted in a financially difficult life and career. On October 7th, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown, and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents. Poe and his works influenced literature in the U.S. and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television as well. I had read the story called The Red Masque Death that is written by Poe. The story is about Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles who he has invited to his masquerade ball within seven rooms of his abbey, that are each decorated with a different color are all victims in the story. Each color I believe is supposed to describe the emotion within the room also. Suddenly an oddly figure stands before him that looks like a corpse of a skeleton with a black cape ,and hood, and blood running down from the sockets of its eyes. Prince Prospero tries to confront the figure but yet fails, and falls and dies immediately after he had tried to say something but was too frightened and cowardly to do so. The Red Death is basically based on the original disease called “The Black Death “or also known as the “Bubonic Plague”. The “Bubonic Plague” has killed more people than any other plague. During the 1300’s, the “Black Death”, as they called it, killed nearly half the population of Europe. They called it the “Black Death” because of the dark color the people’s faces would turn after they died. It is caused by rod-shaped bacteria called “Yersinia Pestis”. The “Bubonic Plague” is an acute and severe infection. It is carried by the fleas on infected rodents such as rats, prairie dogs, and squirrels. If the rodent or flea bites a person, then it can be passed from person to person, and from mucus droplets spread by coughing. When infected, the person becomes ill in a few hours to a few days. The bacteria spreads throughout the body. The symptoms include swollen lymph nodes (also known as “Buboes” which is how the disease got its name), damaged capillaries signified by bleeding under the skin, and black splotches, high fever, aching limbs, vomiting blood, shivering and extreme pain, and swelling continues in lymph nodes on groins, armpits, and neck until they burst shortly before death. Other forms of the plague are pneumonic, which causes
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