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No one escapes death. Human happiness seeks to wall out the threat of death; however, the Biblical reference (I Thessalonians 5: 2 - 3) at the end of the story reminds us that death comes "like a thief in the night, " and even those who seek "peace and safety... shall not escape. "The Masque of the Red Death" tells the story of a Prince Prospero who along with his one thousand friends sought a haven from the plague that was ravishing their country. They lived together in the prince's luxurious abbey with all the amenities and securities imaginable. "There were buffoons, there were improvisatore, there were ballet dancers, there were musicians, there was beauty, and there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the 'Red Death. '" (Poe 269).
At a masquerader's party a tall gaunt figure dressed in "grave cerements and [a] corpse-like mask" enters. (Poe 273) Everyone is offended, but to frightened to apprehend the figure. "When the revellers find courage to attack him, there is nothing tangible within the ghastly cerements" (Quinn 331). This is symbolic of the plague that kills without its presence being felt or seen - a specter, an angel of death, with "illimitable dominion over all" (Poe 373). The story covers a period of approximately six months during the reign of the Red Death. The action takes place in " [the] deep seclusion of one of [Prince Prospero's] castellated abbeys. " The "masque" takes place in the imperial suite, which consisted of seven, very distinct rooms. (See Style for a more indepth discussion of the significance of the setting to this particular story. ) "The Red Death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous... There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.
The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face... shut out [its victim] from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow men... [T]he whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour. " The prince, of course, represents Poe, once again as a young man of wealthy and distinguished family. Here Poe dreamed of escape from the harsh world, where such evils as the plague were dominant escape into a secluded place of pleasure he himself designed. But like so many of Poe's fantasies, this dream world would not remain intact; the imaginary refuge, in spite of all precautions, was invaded by Death, whose merest look destroyed him. It may be significant, too, that all in this company fell back to avoid encountering the gruesome figure.
The prince alone, unwilling to await the stranger's pleasure, went forth to pursue him. Does not Poe here once again, in fantasy, impatiently seek a danger that seems inescapable? The first lines of Poe's narration announce the deadly combination of poverty and AIDS in the so-called Third World: The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal-the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.
The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. Globalisation has been established as the most refined and selective world-class system in social history. Slavery has been replaced by cheap labour. The most prosperous nations have become the pawnbrokers of millions of men and women who earn an average monthly salary of US$ 100. 00 for a fifty-hour labour week. Their prosperity relies, as a matter of fact, on the interest rates of their loans.
The goods and products from Asia, Africa and Latin America are sold to the prosperous societies under draconian conditions -where they must compete with overprotected local economies. Most of the democracies of the world are mises en site that disguise the corruption of wealthy oligarchies -families of landholders, merchants and tyrants who hardly hesitate at the moment of selling out their motherland's resources for a legal contribution to their bank accounts in Switzerland or Monaco. Poor nations are shut out from the aid and from the sympathy of the civilised men. Their misery is unknown, deformed and idealized. During the recent years AIDS has decreased in the prosperous nations, whereas its deadly effects continue seizing men, women and children in the underdeveloped world. During his visit to Africa the Pope advised sexual continence and fidelity to the members of his congregation.
Soon after, European gay and lesbian activists accused the Catholic Church of hindering the use of latex condoms. The reality, unknown to those more fortunate protesters, was that African people who hardly can survive would rarely consider spending their meagre income in preservatives. To the eyes of the most civilised world the mass of the poor have not even become the lepers. Devoid of electricity and education their very existence is denied. And yet, this underdeveloped world houses the forth fifths of the human population. In spite of the achievements of science and technology, our political organisation revives ancient history.
As in the darkest times, the world is split between the members of an empire and the inhabitants of unknown, ferocious, desperate and barbarian world. But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious He had a fine eye for colors and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not.
It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not. Poe even foresees the qualities of the current leaders of our civilisation. Our opinions about a worldwide coalition against terrorism are divided. While pacifists argue that the collateral damage caused by the wealthy nations' bombing campaigns may spread further terrorism, the supporters of the Bush administration insist on his capability to control and suppress suicide attacks. Their satellites and weapons are not only the most sophisticated of the world; they inspired the respect or fear of enemies and friends. As Australia locks migrant's children in concentration camps, Europe neo-nazi parties press for harder anti-immigration policies.
If cheap labour was desperately required by Europe during the decades that followed Second World War, it has become now redundant. Globalisation laws allow multinational companies to build their factories in underdeveloped countries, where employees comply for a scanty salary. US fruit harvests are picked up by Central American illegal emigrants on an annual basis under the connivance of local and Federal authorities. As Prince Prospero, President Bush builds a wall, a multibillion-missile system with the purpose of sheltering America against the threads of the external world.
After the sympathies and fraternity displayed during the cold war decades, the richest nations of the world seal their iron curtains. The external world could take care of itself, is a sentence that justifies the indolence of Prince Prospero, whose main intention was to repel the incursions of his subjects: unhappy men and women who enticed by his happiness and wealth might break in and spread havoc in his rooms. His fears correspond to the fears of our generation. Every hour wretched human beings lose their lives crossing the seas that protect the soil of the most prosperous nations. Last weekend, for instance, the press published the testimony of Vito Diodato, the captain of one of the fishing boats who rescued seven immigrants off the coast of Italy.
Fifty men, women and children drown close to a 1, 500 -tonne navy patrol boat, which refused requests for assistance and was slow to react when the immigrants' boat was capsized by a large wave The most shocking image was that of a black woman trying to get a bottle for her son, quarrelling with the other passengers and ending up being punched in the face I saw her drown four hours later, after clinging for a moment to a life jacket she had grabbed in the water. The ideology that drives a woman to sacrifice her son's life and her own for a slot in the well-off world is the same ideology that shapes the isolation and selfishness of the industrialised nations today: neo-colonialism. Whereas we discuss the judgment, we recognise Time as the supreme ruler of our existence. Poe centres his narration on a solemn dark clock, a harrowing reminder of the boundaries of life. The old, as the young and giddy, are stricken by its clangs. Despite the efforts of plastic surgeons and genetic engineers, millions of human beings die every day.
The statistics of life expectancy are deceitful, for they favour the countries with the lower birth rates. Nobody knows the time; nobody knows the circumstances. Death cut the existences of men and women regardless of their age, creed and nationality. Spiritual guides and philosophers such as Jesus, Buddha, Socrates, Boethius and Montaigne emphasised the advantages of coping with life without fear. But our societies sharply understand, rely on fear: fear to be derided, fear to be prosecuted, fear to be depressed, fear to die.
Losing fear of death means losing respect for a system that produces and controls fear. Defence budgets are approved according to the intensity of politicians' fears. Greed grows as the wealthy fear to return to a less wealthy state. The migrants of the underdeveloped world risk their lives as a response to their fear of starvation. But fear, as hope, is a haphazard speculation about the future. Human life goes in the poorest nations in spite of war, hunger and disease.
On the other hand the 'safest' nations of the world have proved to be vulnerable to international and local terrorism. The reality is that nobody can control the fate of a universe subject to destruction. On September 11 of 2001, the clangs of Poe's clock of ebony were strongly heard throughout the world. The psychological impact on the US population not only demanded a dialogue about the political organisation of the world, but also a metaphysical reflection about the purpose and meaning of existence. Instead, dogmatic ministers and hard-line politicians reduced the problem of radical Islam to a struggle between good and evil. As the executives of the arm industries get richer and more powerful, the citizens of the most prosperous nations fall back into their metaphysical numbness.
Poe's prose becomes macabre. The story of prince Prospero warns the reader about the imminence of death, and about the futility of those who close their gates to the dangers of the world. And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers 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 the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. Poe's last paragraph is admonitory, rather than apocalyptic. Most of Prospero's vassals outlive him. The pest fades off, and with the coming of the spring a new generation of men and women peoples the country. Centuries later, in a distant country, a poet writes the story of a healthy man who defied the generosity of fortune.
His absolute power persuaded him of his capability to control life and death. Reluctant to relieve the sickness and poverty of his vassals, he retired to the safest place on earth: his mausoleum. Worked Cite: Doss Passos, John. Manhattan Transfer (Londres: Penguin, 1986), p. 16.
Ronald Kotulak, Science Writer No Relief in Sight for AIDS Epidemic The Aspects of Death in Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death Joseph Patrick Roppolo Meaning and "The Masque of the Red Death" web web web web
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