The Masque of the Red Death

Main Ideas

• The inevitability of death and its equality for all, regardless of social status and wealth.
• The illusion of safety and the futility of trying to escape fate.
• Critique of selfishness and indifference to the suffering of others.
• Symbolism and allegory in depicting the plague as an unstoppable force.
• Psychological tension and an atmosphere of horror created through the description of enclosed spaces and ominous events.