The Masque of the Red Death: Prince Prospero

-The original assumption most readers make about Poe's short story, "The Masque of the Red Death," is that "Red Death" is the main villain. That it is the disease that is the primary evil of this tale. However, it is the main character, Prince Prospero, that is the true villain.

-As a prince, it is Prince Prospero's duty to govern and rule his people. But in a time of crisis, when half of his kingdom's population has died from the "Red Death," Prospero "was happy and dauntless and sagacious... he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys" (pg. 1.) He abandoned his people for a life that "provided all the appliances of pleasure" (pg. 1). He believed that the "external world could take care of itself" (pg. 1).

-He has lavish parties where "there were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the 'Red Death'" (pg. 1). By running away from what he is afraid of, Prospero thinks that not only can he cheat the "Red Death," but that he is more powerful than it.

-At his most over the top masquerade party, with seven rooms of different colors, a figure, personifying the "Red Death" appears. The other guests and certainly Prospero are frightened and outraged but as a Reader I not only found the figure as just a natural part of the world Poe had created but also welcomed him to punish Prospero for abandoning his people.

-"And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all" (pg. 6). The obvious point of the story is that no one can outrun death. Prince Prospero tried to use his power and wealth to do so but in the end he and all of his guests were killed. What makes Prospero a villain is that he could have tried to help his people, done his duty, and maybe help save some lives but instead he ran away and was arrogant enough to believe that if he turned his back on the world that the world could not make him turn around and face reality.