The Main Characters

The characters we meet in Poe's literary work are  the prince Prospero (the protagonist of the story) and the figure of The Red Death (the antagonist) - a nightmarish disease which devastated the country. To reveal the characters Poe gives them quite suggestive symbolic names. Prince Prospero's name recalls both the terms for wealth and the Shakespearean magician of "The Tempest" who without any doubts abandons his land and escapes from death with a thousand of noblemen. So, at the very beginning we understand that Prospero is destined to be flawed. He runs away when his kingdom needs him desperately which shows  his cowardice and indifference to others. The abyss of his ignorance is revealed by his silly attempts to play tricks on Her Majesty Death. On the other hand, there is something madly heroic and dignified in his efforts to conquer  the Red Death. Prospero definitely has the  strength of spirit  but he wastes it in his hedonistic entertainments and the constant pursuit of pleasures. The figure of the Red Death is a very complicated and sophisticated image. It's the embodiment of hollowness... darkness...It has no tangible forms except the costume and mask but we feel it' aura everywhere. On the one hand, the Red Death dispenses justice over the sinners and punishes the fools who deserve it. But also it massacres thousands of innocent creatures and brings only decay and tortures to the mankind. By means of narrative description with implied judgement the author vividly depicts the personages of the story.