“The ‘RED Death’ had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so Fatal, or so hideous. Blood was it’s Avatar and its seal- the redness and horror of blood”– Edgar Allen Poe. The infamous writer of the macabre, Edgar Allen Poe, created a horrifying twist to the grim reaper whom haunts us even till this day. Appearing in literature, movies, and haunts as a figure of terror and foreboding death.
We first discover The Red Death in The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe as a short story in 1842. The story is set during the Medieval period in a castle somewhere in Europe. Prince Prospero, “was happy and dauntless and sagacious”, invites all of his friends to escape from the plague in his castle where he is hosting a grand masquerade. Poe paints the perfect picture with the beautiful language of the written word. “There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There were so much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust.”
Looming over the masqueraders is the ebony clock in western wall of the black chamber of his castle. When the clock awakens with a clang at every hour the whole party pauses in horror. The horror of reflection that with every hour people are dying by the hundreds outside the castle walls, falling under sway of the Red Death.
Amongst the waltzers, Prince Prospero notices a figure dressed in “habiliments of the grave” moving about the chambers. A INSULT to him for what they are hiding from is Red Horror. The Prince furiously follows the figure demanding for someone to cease, seize, and unmask him. From chamber to chamber ultimately ending up in the black chamber.
*SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!*
The Prince is stabbed and all of the masqueraders gather at the black chamber. They see the red figure with a “corpse-like mask… standing in the shadow of the ebony clock”. All of the partiers know it is The Red Death. “He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revelers 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 Darkness and Decay and The Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” -Edgar Allen Poe.
The moral of this story boys and girls… is that you cannot escape death. This is my favorite Edgar Allen Poe story, a terrifying tale with death looming with every strike of the clock. The last line is especially horrifying. Eeeeeekkkkkkkk! Chills are going down my spine! Ok, on a lighter note…in 1964 Roger Corman turned this story into a film starring Vincent Price.
A fantastic horror movie with terror and the bizarre, like the short story but with a few differences to form a plot. Roger Corman also added characters to extend the story into an hour long feature. But like the short story… the Red Death holds illimitable dominion over all. The film is so colorful and filled with terror. I recommend for those of you who love Vincent Price and Edgar Allen Poe.
Just a little side note, for those of you who love Stephen King. In the beginning of his novel The Shining he has a nod to The Masque of the Red Death.
The Red Death also makes another literary appearance in Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera written in 1909. In the masqurade scene, Erik (aka The Phantom) makes a grand appearance in an extravagant red costume with a skull mask. “It was a man dressed in all scarlet, with a huge hat and feathers on the top of a wonderful death’s head. From his shoulders hung an immense red-vevet cloak, which trailed along the floor like a king’s train; and on this cloak was embroidered, in gold letters, which every one read and repeated aloud, ‘Don’t touch me! I am Red Death stalking abroad!’” -Gaston Leroux.
The picture above is Lon Chaney portraying that scene in the 1925 film adaptation of the story. You can see that Erik believes that the character has an ominous power to have “sway over all”. He uses the symbol of the Red Death to intimidate the masqueraders in the Paris Opera House. In the film he says, “Beneath your dancing feet are the tombs of tortured men – thus does the Red Death rebuke your merriment!” – Erik (The Phantom).
Thank you for joining this dance with me and hopefully we survived. The Masque of the Red Death is one of my favorite figures of Horror and I hope that you enjoyed this love letter to the Red Death. Have a wonderfully spooky day and hope to see YOU in the Dark!
-Mary Imagination
