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  • Essay / The theme of death in The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

    Death is something that everyone fears every day. Edgar Allan Poe emphasizes how inevitable death is in his short story, The Masque of the Red Death. The main character, Prince Prospero, a deceptive and deceptive ruler, pretends to help his country while his people are dying of disease, the "Red Death", when he is simply trying to protect himself and let his people fend for themselves. alone. Ultimately, Poe uses symbolism and personification to embody an illness to emphasize that, regardless of a person's social class, death is inevitable. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay From the outside looking in, Prince Prospero is someone who likes to have fun. All he cares about is being happy and drinking lots of alcohol. He doesn't do much other than that and that's what makes him a weak ruler because when he encounters difficult situations, Prospero seems to ignore them. He doesn't even want to spend time thinking about solutions to these situations because it would be too painful. This is evident when he shares his philosophy on the issues and states, “The outside world could take care of itself. In the meantime, it was madness to grieve or to think... There were jesters, there were improvisers, there were ballet dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there had wine. Prospero intentionally turns to alcohol when times are tough, just so he can have a good time. But his attempts to escape death fail and eventually everyone must die. Prospero's foolish attempts to escape death portray him not only as a weak person, but also as a ruler. Unfortunately, he learns his lesson at the end of the story. Death is imminent. In "The Mask of the Red Death", casualties begin to increase rapidly and this is represented by the large ebony clock. Every time the pendulum swung back and forth and the clock chimed, the partygoers felt frightened and uncomfortable, even though they knew they were safe in the palace. “We observed that the most dizzy ones turned pale and the oldest and calm ones passed by. their hands on their eyebrows as if in confused rejoicing or meditation. Its chilling chime reminded people daily that their time was coming to an end and that death was imminent. Of course, after the chime stopped, everyone continued what they were doing, symbolizing how the time of death is not the same for everyone. Death is an abstract idea, personifying it as an illness in the form of a masked figure. Poe makes it easier for readers to understand that death has no boundaries or rules, that it conquers anyone and anything. In his last moments, Prince Prospero finds himself face to face with “Death Read,” and it ends with illness, “faced with his pursuer and the trawler which falls gleaming on the sable carpet. » Which then leads to Prospero's death. The ending shows how foolish Prospero and his friends were to think they could escape death. Death is inevitable; their plan to escape death was doomed from the start. Poe letting Prospero die last also illustrates that regardless of your social status in the world, death does not separate, it treats everyone the same..