Poe in the time of Coronavirus
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) When I started this blog and throughout its life, I have resolved to focus exclusively on the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. Today, I write about one of his short stories— “The Masque of the Red Death” (1842) —because of its relevancy given the Coronavirus pandemic. But I will also focus on its poetry rather than its value as a short story, and I will contrast the themes it presents with those I have analyzed in Poe’s verse. In times of COVID-19, it is impossible for a Poe buff not to think of The MRD. You have a highly infectious plague ravaging the planet. There is no test, no cure, and no stopping the spread of the contagion. The only recourse to those who wish to survive is to self-quarantine. But this is Poe, so the isolation is not behind hermetically sealed, Ebola-styled plastic enclosures, but—wait for it—in a “castellated abbey”. The quarantine party consists of Prince Prospero and a thousand of his closest friends in the nobility, who turn