Kade Cockrum – Ghost and Poe: How a Plague Is Shown Across Creative Medias

The Masque of the Red Death is one of Poe’s most popular pieces. It describes the effects a horrific plague is inflicting on the outside world while the Prince Prospero chose his 100 closest friends and knights to hide in his estate. Rats was the first single released from Ghost’s fourth album, Prequelle, which is a concept album that follows the apocalypse after the anti-Christ is born. The Rats music video is full of imagery that can be compared to the descriptions within The Masque of the Red Death. 

This edition of “The Masque of the Red Death” from Mabbot’s collection is part of The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe that was released in 1978, which is a collection that has been considered a standard reference for years. It will be examined as a plague fiction piece through the lens of how the outside, the Red Death, affects the inside, Prospero’s estate, according to the article “Inside “The Masque of the Red Death””  by Martin Roth, with a specific focus on the outside and how it relates to Rats. The Red Death represents how the world outside of Prince Prospero has fallen into despair as the Red Death ravages those whom Prospero did not care to save. The music video for Rats is full of imagery that shows how the outside would look, with blood and bodies everywhere, while Prospero and his revelers were hiding in his estate. Then the symbolism within the story, specifically the symbolism related to the colors red and black from BrightHub Education’s article, can be applied to the music video.

The source for Masque of the Red Death is:

Edgar Allan Poe, “Masque of the Red Death.” The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol II: Tales and Sketches (1978): pp. 667–668. https://www.eapoe.org/works/mabbott/tom2t051.htm

The source for the music video I will be using for lyrics and images is:

Ghost – Rats [Official Music Video]. YouTube, VEVO, 12 Apr. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_ijc7A5oAc. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023

The goal of using imagery from the music video is to show that the scenes shown in the video are similar to the descriptions of the devastation the Red Death leaves behind. I may also find some illustrations of Masque of the Red Death to compare to the music video’s imagery. If that is the case I will cite the image sources.