The Masque of the Red Death: A Romantic Exploration in Poe's Tale - Paper Sample

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe is a thrilling short story that uses a fictional country that has been plagued by a deadly disease called the Red Death. The disease is fatal such that its victims die horribly and gruesomely and has killed half the Kingdom. Therefore, Prince Prospero, the ladies, and the nights shut themselves in the castle and left the poor to die. As several events unfold while in the castle, several cases of Romanticism are evident throughout the story.

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To begin with, the Prince believed that in a party, pleasure is inevitable. People must dance, sing, and play games (Levine and Baym, 687). For example, the author states, "The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure." This shows that the Prince knew what was needed at the party: musicians, wine, cards, and dancers. The Prince's act of secluding himself and letting the people of his Kingdom die shows that he cared more about his well-being than the Kingdom, which he has a formal duty to take care of. Besides, the author says that the Prince was more sensitive to colors and their effects and hated just mere fashion. The Prince's actions, that is, beauty and pleasing his audience with all sorts of entertainment, prove that he is Romantic.

Furthermore, there is evidence of Romanticism when the author describes how the Prince had decorated the party's rooms and wanted his guests to have pleasure. For example, the author states that the windows were made of stained glass whose color varied according to the chamber's prevailing decoration, which it opened (Levine and Baym 688). In line with this, it is evident that beauty was a priority to the Prince. The rooms had to look smart for the pleasure of his guests. The prince's acts show that he was more concerned about his close friends being entertained and comfortable. In contrast, he was not rational because he never cared about other people in the Kingdom who were dying of the disease.

The belief in power is another act of Romanticism that is evident in the story. When the masked man enters the castle during the party, people are shocked by how he found his way in. The author says that the masked man had "out-Heroded Herod." This meant that the man had broken the laws set by the Prince. The man makes it worse when he walks before the Prince to the room yet uninvited. The Prince gets mad at him, claiming he had mocked their woes. The Prince ordered his arrest and was hanged in the morning. The people agreed to his orders without question and went to stop the man. The furry of the Prince because his laws had been broken and the compliance of the people to the prince's orders is an indication of Romanticism that existed in that society.

The examples mentioned above relate to some cases of Romanticism we are experiencing in this modern world. For example, during the COVID-19 outbreak, we experienced individualism, especially among the well-up families. Those who had money stocked their kitchen with enough food and quarantined themselves. The act was not rational because they should have joined together with fellow citizens and figured out how to counter the pandemic.

Work Cited

Levine, Robert S., and Nina Baym. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: 1865 to the present. 8th ed., W. W. Norton, 2012.