Lessons must be learned.~

The central message of "The Masque of the Red Death" is perhaps best understood as the inevitability of death. Prospero walls himself and his courtiers inside his palace to attempt to avoid the Red Death, a horrible plague that ravages the countryside. In sharp contrast to the suffering outside, they hold a lavish costume ball. But among the costumed guests is Death himself, who has slipped in "like a thief in the night," and he strikes down first Prospero and then all of the other guests. Their wealth, power, and privilege could not save them from the inevitable, and their attempt at escaping the plague comes across as decadent and arrogant even as it is fearful. The final line of the play is chilling, and sums up the play's message succinctly: "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”