The Masque of the Red Death

The Red Death

• The "Red Death" pestilence devastated the country, marked by gruesome symptoms.
• Symptoms included sharp pains, sudden dizziness, profuse bleeding at the pores, and dissolution, all within half an hour.
• Scarlet stains on the body and face ostracized the victim.

Prince Prospero's Refuge

• Prince Prospero, happy, dauntless, and sagacious, sought to escape the Red Death.
• He invited a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from his court to a castellated abbey.
• The abbey was fortified with a strong, high wall and iron gates, sealed by the courtiers to prevent ingress or egress.
• The abbey was provisioned with entertainment like buffoons, improvisatori, ballet-dancers, musicians, beauty, and wine.

The Masquerade

• Prince Prospero hosted a masked ball for his guests in the abbey during the fifth or sixth month of seclusion.
• The ball took place in a suite of seven rooms, each with a distinct color scheme.
• The rooms were arranged irregularly, allowing the viewer to embrace little more than one at a time.
• Each room had a tall, narrow Gothic window with stained glass matching the room's color.
• The first six rooms progressed through blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet.
• The seventh room was draped in black velvet, but had scarlet-colored window panes.
• The rooms had no lamps or candelabra, but corridors featured tripods with braziers that cast light through the tinted glass.
• The black chamber, produced a ghastly effect, deterring many guests from entering.

The Ebony Clock

• A gigantic ebony clock stood against the western wall of the black seventh apartment.
• The clock's pendulum swung heavily, and, on the hour, the clock emitted a loud, clear, deep, and musical sound.
• The peculiar sound caused the orchestra to pause and the waltzers to cease, creating a moment of disconcerted silence.
• The chimes made the giddiest grow pale and the aged pensive, but laughter followed as the echoes died away.
• Every 60 minutes (3,600 seconds), the clock chimed again, causing the same reaction.

The Masqueraders

• The duke had peculiar tastes and a keen eye for color and effect, ignoring conventional fashion.
• His plans were bold and fiery, with conceptions of barbaric lustre.
• The movable embellishments of the chambers and the masqueraders' costumes were directed by the prince
• The revelers were grotesque, with much glare, glitter and phantasm; arabesque figures with unsuited limbs. They embraced the beautiful, the wanton, the bizarre, the terrible, and the potentially disgusting.
• Dreams appeared to stalk through the chambers, taking on the hue of the rooms and influencing the music of the orchestra seeming to be the echo of their steps.

The Uninvited Guest

• As midnight approached, the ebony clock sounded, causing the music and dancing to cease.
• During the twelve strokes of the clock, a masked figure, previously unnoticed, captured the crowd’s attention.
• A murmur of disapprobation, surprise, terror, horror, and disgust spread through the company.
• The figure's appearance was beyond the accepted masquerade license and exceeded even the prince’s standards of decorum.
• The figure was tall, gaunt, and shrouded in grave clothes, with a mask resembling a stiffened corpse.
• The mummer had assumed the type of the Red Death, with vesture dabbled in blood and a brow sprinkled with scarlet horror.

Confrontation and Death

• Prince Prospero saw the spectral image and was initially terrified and disgusted, then enraged.
• Prospero demanded to know who dared to insult them with blasphemous mockery and ordered the figure to be seized and unmasked.
• The prince was standing in the eastern, or blue, chamber.
• Due to the awe inspired by the mummer, no one seized him.
• The figure passed within a yard of Prospero and moved through the chambers: blue to purple, green, orange, white, and violet.
• Maddened by rage and shame, Prince Prospero pursued the figure with a drawn dagger.
• As he approached the figure in the black velvet apartment, the mummer turned, and Prospero fell dead, the dagger dropping.
• The revelers, summoned the courage of despair, and threw themselves into the black apartment and seized the mummer.
• The revelers found grave cerements and a corpse-like mask, but no tangible form inside.

The End

• The presence of the Red Death was acknowledged.
• The revelers dropped one by one in the blood-bedewed halls, dying in despairing postures.
• The life of the ebony clock went out, the flames of the tripods expired, and Darkness, Decay, and the Red Death held dominion over all.