Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the word “mask” has experienced a slight semantic shift over the past year. As most of us have not had to wear masks our whole lives, our connotation of the word had largely been associated with that of a disguise or a costume, not as much for protection. A disguise, though, can sometimes be protection as well – like superheroes who must shield their identity. Sometimes, we metaphorically mask ourselves to shield others from seeing the real “us.” Like those who wear a metaphorical mask, Prince Prospero and his friends in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” wear multiple masks as a safeguarded disguise for their fear of inevitable death.
The characters first disguise their fear with physical protection. Prince Prospero performs defensive techniques against the Red Death with a “strong and lofty wall” and “gates of iron” (Poe). Poe writes, “When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends […], and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his crenellated abbeys.” Similar to those who wear their masks underneath their noses during our Covid pandemic, Prince Prospero halfway protects himself from the Red Death, but contradicts his protection by inviting his friends over for a party. While he feels he is protected from the Red Death, he essentially invited it in. Like Prince Prospero, the “masqueraders” are taking comfort in the security and entertainment as well: “With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion” (Poe). Although Prince Prospero and the ball-goers felt they were physically protected by being inside the walls, physical protection was no defense against the inescapable Red Death.
Another disguise the characters wear is fake courage, concealing their foolishness. As a child, my grandmother continually warned me, her thrill-seeking grandchild, that there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity. Prince Prospero and his friends are tap dancing on this fine line throughout the story, eventually crossing too far over. Not only are they being foolishly courageous by attending this ball, but they are ignoring their own instinct that is telling them it is dangerous to be there. When the clock strikes the hour, the peculiar sound of the clock forces the orchestra, the waltzers, and the “whole gay company” to pause: “[…] and while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale” (Poe). Because of their uneasiness of the clock, they stay in the apartments that “beat feverishly the heart of life” (Poe). Though the ball-goers seem brave for coming to the party, they are not brave enough to face death when no one helps Prince Prospero confront the “spectral image” of the Red Death (Poe). Pretending to be courageous sometimes covers up foolishness, but the thin veil of this type of bravery is easily ripped.
The third mask of disguise is Prince Prospero’s fantastical mask, using it to conceal himself from death. This mask causes a dramatic irony; Prince Prospero thinks he can hide from death, but the reader sees reality more clearly. Throughout the story, Poe uses imagery to put the reader in the same dream-like state that Prince Prospero is living in. This begins with the list of entertainment brought into the abbey – buffoons, improvisatori, ballet-dancers, musicians, beauty, wine – all pleasurable phenomena to keep the prince and his courtiers distracted from reality (Poe). The unusual rooms add another fantastic element. In the rooms with vibrant colors, “[…] the music swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than ever, taking hue from the many-tinted windows through which stream the rays of the tripods” (Poe). These rooms represent liveliness through their decor, but the furthest room is black with “blood-colored panes,” representing the verity of death (Poe). Because of this galling reality of death after life, Prince Prospero almost does not follow the Red Death into the room while confronting him, but shame pushes him along. By using all these pleasures to appear that he is well-entertained and happy, Prince Prospero is essentially hiding himself from the reality of death, as if he is yelling, “I’m thriving here, I’m not ready to go” in death’s face.
Death is a harsh reality, and many want to drastically shield themselves from it as though they can change the course of nature. These masks of disguise the characters try to wear all eventually slip off, leaving them more vulnerable and fearful of death than they would have been if they would have faced it. We can only prepare by living and loving as if every day might be our last because nobody is safe from death.
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