| The Masque Of The Red Death |
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Information AboutThe Masque Of The Red Death |
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| 1842 short stories | |
| short stories by edgar allan poe | |
| selected shorts | |
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The story takes place at the agony and sweats blood instead of water. It is said to kill within half an hour. One night, Prospero holds a Masquerade Ball to entertain his guests, but late into the night, he notices one figure in a grey robe resembling a funeral shroud, with a mask depicting a victim of the Red Death, which all at the Ball have been desperate to escape. Gravely insulted, Prospero demands to know the identity of the mysterious guest. To the horror of all, the guest is revealed to be not only infected with the Red Death, but a personification of Death itself. Once this is revealed, all the guests suddenly contract and succumb to the disease. The theme of this story is how, eventually, nature punishes the proud that believe themselves invulnerable, and that no one, no matter how hard they try, can escape death, as it comes unexpectedly, "like a thief in the night". The nature of the disease actually depicted as red death is uncertain. Some scholars feel that it is Tuberculosis (or consumption, as it was known then). Poe had already lost two of his female relatives to this disease. The onset of the disease was usually heralded by coughing up of blood. The infected person then went on to develop worsening blood loss as the disease progressed to fatality. The story was adapted in 1964 by Roger Corman into a '' The Masque Of The Red Death '' starring Vincent Price . The film and the story both end with the sentence: And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. The film is of note in that the Cinematographer was Nicholas Roeg and it features Jane Asher . EXTERNAL LINKS
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