“The Masque of the Red Death’'
By Edgar Allan Po
Ⅰ. Summary
Long time ago, there was a pestilence that devastated the country,
called the red death. The pestilence dominated the dominion. The dominions were
half depopulated by the pestilence. There was one prince, named Prospero, a
dauntless and sagacious prince .He called all his light hearted friends from
the thousand hale knights and dames of his court and seclude themselves to the
place where no one could enter. He closed the gate of the castle to prevent the
pestilence to come.
After several months, Prince Prospero made a party for not affected
people in the castle. He invited the people who are not affected. While they
were having the party, Prince Prospero did not notice one guest. He was with
the costume of corpse. There were seven rooms in the castle that were colored
differently, and the guy was in the blue room. When they noticed person dressed
with copse is with them, they were afraid of him. No one could attempt to touch
or talk to him. One brave man, Prince Prospero, thought that he needs to kill
the red death. He followed the red death with a knife. While following the red
death, he suddenly turned back. Prospero saw his eyes, and he immediately died.
The people in the cattle found out that the person in corpse is red death.
After the great revelation, one by one, all the people in the castle died.
Ⅱ. Reflection
After reading the story, I started to like this story. Long time
ago, pestilence was very common. There were also pestilence that have no cures.
Even now, there are diseases that do not have cures, but it was worse than now.
Those made many people die at that time. As we can notice in the story, the red
death symbolizes death. If we read the story, we may be confused whether Prince
Prospero is a good prince or not. When the pestilence had affected many people,
Prince Prospero just closed the gate of the castle for those who have high
positions and who are not affected including himself. We may think that he is
decidable and brave. Even when he followed to kill the red death, I think he
was brave although he followed to kill the red death for himself. In other
sight, we may think that he is selfish also. He closed the gate of the castle
to prevent the pestilence, but the other people were ignored by him. There
could be people who could live if Prospero did not close the gate. He closed
the gate for himself and few people only. He can be brave and selfish also.
In addition, there are also lessons in
Christians’ view here. In the story, there are allusions that we can find in
the Bible. There is the verse that the day of the Lord will come like a thief.
We can find it in the Bible (1Thessalonians 5:2, 2Peter 3:10). As the death
suddenly came in the story, the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly even
though we are not prepared. We also have to be prepared for the day He will
come like a thief. I am going to be prepared for that day, and I am going to
repent for what I have done.