The Masked Figure
The ‘‘masked figure’’ that appears at Prince Prospero's costume ball is the most illusive ‘‘character'' in the story. Upon the stroke of midnight, the guests first notice this ‘‘masked figure,’’ who is ‘‘tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave,’’ and looks like the corpse of a body afflicted by the Red Death, its face ‘‘besprinkled with the scarlet horror.’’ Prince Prospero orders that the figure be unmasked and hanged at dawn, but his guests refuse to unmask him. The figure then retreats through all seven rooms of the abbey, pursued by Prince Prospero. When the figure reaches the seventh room, it turns to face the Prince, who falls instantly to his death. When the guests rush to seize the figure, they find that, beneath the corpselike costume, there is no "tangible form.'' The masked figure turns out to be The Red Death itself. It had crept into the sealed abbey "like a thief in the night.'' The last line of the story indicates that the Red Death has triumphed over life: "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.’’
Prince Prospero is the central character of "The Masque of the Red Death.’’ Despite the plague of the Red Death which rages throughout his country, the Prince ignores the suffering of others and invites ‘‘a thousand friends’’ from his court to seal themselves in an abbey...
(The entire section is 611 words.)