Poe and Life Science

Does “The Masque of the Red Death” represent a scientific view of the organic world?

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"The Masque of the Red Death" is a story about a disease-'Red Death', that diminishes the population of a fictitious country. Prince Prospero is in charge of the country, but his solution to the problem is to invite about one thousand of his friends to stay in his castle for six months to avoid the 'Red Death'. During their stay in the castle, Prospero decides to have a masquerade ball. There are seven main rooms that the masquerade was held in.  The first six rooms were different colors-blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet. Each had a corresponding window color that matched the color of the room. However, the last room was black with a red window. This room had a different mood than the others, a somewhat gloomy and depressing mood circulated through it. There was also an ebony clock that chimed every hour and disrupted all of the guests of the masquerade. Finally, the guests started to notice a masked figure that appeared at midnight. Poe describes the man as “tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat.” When Prince Prospero hears of this man ruining his masquerade, he becomes enraged.  In a fit of fury, Prince Prospero charged the figure. He rushed through the first six rooms and met the figure in the seventh, black room with a drawn dagger. The prince falls dead and the masked figure no longer has a body under the cloak. Each guest dies one by one shortly after. Although the story "The Masque of the Red Death" is fiction, Poe provides many details that alludes to various real life epidemics. Some of these diseases include tuberculosis, yellow fever, and filoviral diseases such as Ebola and Marburg. There is no direct evidence that the 'Red Death' matches up with one definite disease, it was purely invented in the mind of Edgar Allan Poe. 

Tuberculosis
Many of the people surrounding Poe died of tuberculosis, so it is highly probable his motive for writing this story was because of the disease and death he was around in real life. Poe's mother, his adoptive mother, his wife, and his brother all died as a result of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a gruesome disease that effects the lungs and causes chronic coughing, usually coughing up blood. 

Yellow Fever
Another theory is that "The Masque of the Red Death" was based off of yellow fever. Many of the place Poe lived were greatly affected by the disease. Yellow fever causes high fever, body ache, bleeding from the nose and mouth, and the worst, black vomit caused by gastric bleeding. The year before Poe wrote this story, there was a huge outbreak of yellow fever that effected the entire nation, which could have prompted him to write this story. 

Filoviral Diseases
Poe's 'Red Death' is very similar to the Marburg and Ebola viruses. Filoviral diseases cause abrupt fever and myalgia (muscle pains). Marburg causes hemorrhagic fever and can be contracted from African monkeys. Some suggest that monkeys could have entertained guests at Prince Prospero's ball, but Poe does not say if they were from Africa or not. Ebola can also cause myalgia and effects the central nervous system. This could make a victim feel off balance or dizzy, which is also seen in Poe's 'Red Death.'