The disease is so deadly rapid that one is dead within thirty minutes after he is infected. The story opens with a recounting of a plague, the "Red Death" it has long been devastating the country, and the narrator describes the process of the disease, emphasizing the redness of the blood and the scarlet stains. This is the method that Poe chose to achieve his unity of effect (see section on Poe's "Critical Theories"). This essential theme is presented directly and with extreme economy through the plot, or narrative element.
Everyman cries out to him: "O Death, thy comest when I had thee least in mind." Similarly, Poe's story deals with the inevitability of death and the futility of trying to escape death.
In this ancient play, the main character is named Everyman and early in the play while walking down the road, he meets another character called Death. In "The Masque of the Red Death," Poe presents an age-old theme, a theme as old as the medieval morality play Everyman.
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