The Masque of the Red Death

“The Masque of the Red Death,” originally published as “The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy,” is a short story in the Gothic horror genre by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1842. The story is set in an unidentified country infested with a plague known as the “Red Death.” Amid this plague the prince of the land, Prospero, holds a masquerade ball for his courtiers in a secluded abbey. The Red Death attends the party, bringing doom for all present. The story is often taken as an allegory for the inevitability of death.

This study guide uses “The Masque of the Red Death” as it is printed in the 1983 edition of The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe, published by Running Press. A detailed summary follows.

A plague known as “Red Death” has devastated the country-side. The Red Death causes horrific symptoms, with bloody stains appearing on the body and face of the victim, a sign of sickness which for every victim “shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men” (739). Once infected, the victims die quickly, the whole progress of sickness “the incidents of half an hour” (739).