The Masque of the Red Death is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. It takes place in a kingdom sometime in the Middle Ages. A fictitious plague is destroying the town and killing the villagers in gruesome ways, in a matter of hours. The prince, Prospero, is not frightened and uses a fortress to house many nobles and dukes from the plague. While the plague is destroying the town, Prospero and his friends live peacefully in the castle. After seven months, Prospero decides to host a masquerade, a party which involves people wearing masks. There are seven rooms in the castle where the people party in, except for the black and scarlet colored room. Inside the red and scarlet room is a clock which makes a large noise each hour. When the clock strikes each hour, the dancers stop dancing, the musicians stop playing, and the nobles stop eating. This is because they admire and embrace the loud sound, each time it rings. Towards midnight, a man in a plague doctor cloak and bloody mask is noticed. The nobles are frightened by this, so Prospero orders his men to catch him. While they look into the man's eyes, they stop in their tracks. Prospero is angered and takes matters into his own hands. He takes a dagger and chases the man down the seven rooms until they reach the black and scarlet room. That is when the man turns around. Prospero drops the dagger and dies. When the others reveal the identity of the man, there appears to be no one there. This is because the man is the red death itself. It slowly kills everybody else. The clock stops and the Red Death rules over the castle.
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May 2017
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