At the height of the pandemic, when we were locked down at home and the news was uniformly about disease and death, I decided the time was right to reread Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Masque of the Red Death (1842).
Like us, Poe was no stranger to plagues. In his lifetime, Europe and America experienced outbreaks of cholera and yellow fever.
The Masque of the Red Death presents the terrifyingly plausible spectre of the "Red Death". The story begins with this ominous declaration: "The 'Red Death' had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous."
The disease gets its name because its victims' faces are stained red with their own blood. It is always fatal and victims succumb to a painful death within an hour.
Even as the Red Death rages across his kingdom, Prince Prospero remains detached from reality: "But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless…"
Prospero decides to invite a thousand of his closest friends "from among the knights and dames of his court" to stay with him in his grand abbey.
Once they are safely inside the abbey, every entrance is sealed tightly. The abbey is isolated far from the main population centre. With its impenetrable walls, it is supposedly safe from those who are sick.
Prospero and his friends can wait out the plague in comfort — physical distancing in luxury during mediaeval times.
The lucky chosen few forget the troubles outside as they indulge in excess. "The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime, it was folly to grieve, or to think." Prospero supplies fabulous food, drink and entertainment like dancers, jesters and musicians to amuse himself and his guests for their long stay.
"The abbey was amply provisioned…The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure."
After half a year of seclusion, Prospero throws a masque ball of outrageous proportions and decadence. Describing the ball, Poe writes, "There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions".
The most striking aspect of the ball is its venue — spread out within seven interconnected chambers, each one a unique colour. Walking from the easternmost chamber to the west, revellers can party in rooms bathed entirely in blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet and finally black.
The seven coloured chambers are full of symbolism, and commentators have suggested interesting interpretations. Some believe the number seven represents the seven deadly sins, among which pride and gluttony are listed. Others note the parallel with the seven seals in Revelations. The breaking of these seals unleashes judgment and cataclysm.
The colours of the seven chambers have also been debated. One interpretation is that they represent the progression of day to night.
The easternmost chamber is blue, and one walks westward to the final chamber, black. This might also foreshadow the life cycle, passing from life to death.
For that is what awaits the happy revellers. In the middle of their giddy celebration, a deadly quiet descends as everyone at the party becomes painfully aware of the newest arrival: a spectral and skeletal figure.
Like everyone else, the newcomer is masked, but its mask is most offensive, for it is marked by the blood of the Red Death.
Prospero is outraged at the newcomer's terrible mask, but as he approaches to strike the figure, Prospero collapses in agony and perishes.
Understanding too late that the Red Death walks and waltzes among them, the revellers try to flee, but are trapped inside the sealed abbey.
They die bloody where they fall, "and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all".
Prospero abandoned his subjects when they needed his leadership most. He chose not only to protect himself and his friends, but to entertain them while his people suffered.
I could not help but note the parallels between Prospero and the United Kingdom's then prime minister, Boris Johnson.
Johnson and his staff attended a birthday party at 10 Downing Street in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK was under strict lockdowns, which Boris' administration itself imposed. The "Partygate" scandal cost Johnson dearly.
Like the Red Death, Covid-19 does not discriminate between people. The privileged and powerful might be able to delay getting sick, but as The Masque of the Red Death shows, nobody is immune to illness forever.
In fact, the potency of Poe's story is precisely that the arrogant are punished severely for pursuing their own pleasures at the expense of the people.