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Tikrit University
College of Arts
Journal
of Al- Farahidi,s Arts
A Quartly Academic Journal
of
The College of Arts - Tikrit
University
ISSN: 2074-9554 (Print)
ISSN: 2663-8118 (Online)
Deposit Number in The National Library and
Documents in Baghdad: 1602 For Year: 2011
Volume (13) Issue (47) September 2021 First Part
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dr.saadsalman@tu.edu.iq
jaa@tu.edu.iq
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ث
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Pandemics Between Survival and
Devastation: A Study of Edgar Allan Poe’s
"The Masque of The Red Death" And Jack
London’s "The Scarlet Plague"
Semi - Vowels in English and Arabic
Le Désarroi des Concepts Romanesques
Dans Moderato Cantabile De Marguerite
Duras
Tropology and Stylistic Approach to
Ernest Hemingway’s "The Old Man
and the Sea"
The Effect of Cloze Instruction on EFL
Preparatory School Student's Writing Skill
and Improve Their Attitudes Towards
Learning English Language
T. S. Eliot's Establishment of Modern
Heritage - A Study of Two Selected
Plays
A Study of English Transcription Mistakes
Committed by Students at University Level
Pandemics Between Survival and
Devastation: A Study of Edgar Allan Poe’s
"The Masque of The Red Death" And Jack
London’s "The Scarlet Plague"
Assistant Professor : Shaima' Abdullah
Jassim
Tikrit University
College of Education for Humanities
Department of English Language
441 P a g e |
Journal of Al-Frahedis Arts, Tikrit University | Vol (13) Issue (47) Part I | September 2021 | Pages (441-449)
Asst. Professor. Shaima'
Abdullah Jassim
E-Mail: shaima_hailan@tu.edu.iq
Mobile: +9647729601988
Department of English Language
College of Education for Humanities
Tikrit University
Salahuddin
Iraq
Keywords:
- Death
- Edgar Allen Poe
- Gothic
- Jack London
- Pandemic
- Plague
A R T I C L E I N F O
istory:HArticle
Submitted: 28/03/2021
Accepted: 25/04/2021
Published: 23/08/2021
Tikrit University / College of Arts / Journal of Al-Frahedis Arts Tikrit University / College of Arts / Journa
Pandemics Between Survival and Devastation:
A Study of Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Masque of
The Red Death" And Jack London’s "The
Scarlet Plague"
A B S T R A C T
The pandemic which overwhelmed the world in 2020, namely
Covid-19, has changed peoples’ lives. However, some fields have
taken the responsibility of helping people to overcome the miseries
accompanied this hideous disease. Among these fields are the field
of medicine, health care, and biology. In fact, literature has the
greatest share of shedding light upon pandemics since literature and
society are strongly correlated.
This study handles pandemics in two gothic stories “The
Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe and Jack London’s
“The Scarlet Plague”. Both stories talk about death as a result of
plague but in Poe’s story there is nobody who escapes death while
in London’s story there are people who survive; yet the survivals
live a savage life after the decline of civilization because of the
plague.
© 2009 - 2021 College of Arts | Tikrit University
1
* Corresponding Author: Asst. Professor. Shaima' Abdullah Jassim | Department of English Language, College of Education for
Humanities, Tikrit University | Salahuddin, Iraq | E-Mail: shaima_hailan@tu.edu.iq / Mobile: +9647729601988
ISSN: 2663-8118 (Online) | ISSN: 2074-9554 (Print)
Journal of Al-Frahedis Arts
Article Available Online:
Iraqi Scientific Academic Journals, Open Journals System
Asst. Professor. Shaima' Abdullah Jassim, Journal of Al-Frahedis Arts, Tikrit University | Vol (13) Issue (47) Part I | September 2021 | Pages (441-449)
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1. Introduction:
It is known that people are not very interested in reading about death,
but with the spread of Covid-19 interest in works which handle the subject
of pandemics and plagues emerged as a result of people's curiosity and need
to know about such diseases. Literature has the greatest share of shedding
light upon this critical subject. Particularly, the gothic has had a fascination
with contagious illnesses. You can’t build an entire genre around nostalgia
for the Middle Ages without grappling with the Black Death—a devastating
plague that swept through Europe in the 1300s, killing millions. As Gothic
literature developed, many authors especially in the Victorian age had their
own lives touched by such infectious diseases as tuberculosis, cholera,
scarlet fever, and typhoid. In fact, the pandemics of the past and the present
force us to confront our mortality and fears around infection and contagion.
Some authors explore this through the invention of fictional plagues, while
others use myth and monsters as metaphor for transmitting disease
(https://www.thegothiclibrary.com).
In his book Bills of Mortality Patrick Reilly discusses the effect of
plague and contiguousness in literature of three centuries ranging from
Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague year to Tony Kushner’s Angels in
America. He mentions that death sweeps the streets of seventeenth-century
London in Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year. A mysterious virus
is felling young men mostly gay men, in the 1980s New York of Tony
Kushner’s play Angels in America, and a plague overwhelms the ancient
city of Thebes in Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus. For centuries, at least since
the myth of the Plague at Aegina, the subject of plague has been generating
an aesthetic that distinctly characterizes its manifold texts. Although the
plague texts tackle the subject from different prospects and have different
plots and elements, they are related to each other by their aesthetic response
to the overpowering fact of lethal epidemic. To classify such texts as
catastrophic is already to be approaching them in terms of their aesthetic,
as the designation is not only a way of defining plague texts but also, and
more importantly to an exploration of their aesthetic, a way of perceiving
plague itself. It invests plagues with significance, as do the plague texts
themselves. Angry gods, for example, must be pacified; a savior-scapegoat
must die if the kingdom is to be saved from the contagious disease on the
land. The plain facts of disease and death become aesthetically a matter of
design and destiny. As it was in ancient Greece, aesthetics is here defined
as a process that originates. Reilly maintains that the aesthetics of a plague
text can be achieved through the language use- the vehicle of conveying
metaphors like the metaphor of scapegoats which should be sacrificed I
ancient Greek to get rid of the contagion (Reilly: 1-2).
Reilly indicates that to the poetic mind, the compass of plague defies
comprehensibility; in its devastating enormity it lies beyond human ken.
Therefore, it is that the poetic reaction to plague enlists language as often
to blame higher powers for the contagion’s ravage as to appeal to them for
subsiding and surcease. Nonetheless, the poetic mind often notice in destiny
an explanation: no matter how painfully and mysteriously, the plague is
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somehow fulfilling God’s divine plan. The scientific mind, while it may
reject such providential views, nonetheless embraces destiny, although it is
empirically (and aesthetically) perceived as being circumstantial or
conditional. Whether scientifically formulated or poetically ratiocinated,
destiny in either case gives more significance to the plague narrative than it
does to plague’s fact (Ibid. 3).
Medieval writings, like Giovanni Boccaccio‟ The Decameron (1353)
and Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1392), initiated the literary
motif of epidemics the authors of these works depict the Black Death that
ravages Europe during that time. Epidemic literature was later developed
by Daniel Defoe in Journal of the Plague Year (1722), Mary Shelley in The
Last Man (1826), and Edgar Allan Poe in “The Masque of Red Death”
(1842). Other works which do not directly dealt with this motif have a sense
of morbidity that makes the reader instantly able to identify it through a
close reading behind the lines. For example, “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
(1818) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) can be read as allegories of
epidemics as they feature horrible monsters, wreaking havoc wherever they
move” (Ismael: 1020).
J. A. Cuddon defines gothic works as tales of mystery and horror,
intended to chill the spine and curdle the blood. These works include a
strong element of the supernatural and have all or most of the now familiar
topography, sites, posts, presences and happenings. Also, they contain wild
and desolate landscapes, dark forests, ruined abbeys, feudal halls and
medieval castles with dungeons, secret passages, winding stairways,
oubliettes, sliding panels and torture chambers; monstrous apparitions and
curses; a stupefying atmosphere of doom and gloom; heroes and heroines
in the direst of imaginable straits, wicked tyrants, malevolent witches,
demonic powers of unspeakably hideous aspect, and a proper complement
of spooky effects and clanking specters (Cuddon: 308). This flourished in
the 18th. century. However, there are many writers who were masters of this
genre. Cuddon maintains that Edgar Allan Poe is "one of the most Gothic
of all 19th c. writers of short stories whose long-term contribution to the
horror story, the tale of suspense and mystery and the detective story was
immeasurable" (Ibid.: 309).
Hence, gothic literature is a suitable domain for writing about
pandemics since it deals with the issues of life and death, diseases and
pestilences. The horrors befall with contagions fit the essence of gothic
stories. Edgar Allan Poe and Jack London handle pandemics from different
prospects: the setting of Poe’s story is in the past while London’s story
presents this issue in the future, in 2013.
2. Inescapable Death: Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death:
The plight of 2020 which overwhelmed the universe, i.e., Covid-19
brought to the light the stories of pandemics in the previous ages. One of
the stories which was written and published in the beginning of the
twentieth century is “The Masque of Red Death” (1842) by Edgar Allen
Poe (1809-1849). Some critics read this story as an allegorical text.
Asst. Professor. Shaima' Abdullah Jassim, Journal of Al-Frahedis Arts, Tikrit University | Vol (13) Issue (47) Part I | September 2021 | Pages (441-449)
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However, this story is consisted of few pages. Poe portrays the plague
which devastated the country and how people die after just a half an hour
after infection:
“The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence
had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal- the
redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden
dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the body, with dissolution” (Poe:
264). Among this chaos and painful death, Prince Prospero chooses to lock
himself and a thousand ladies and gentlemen of his court in his palace. They
defy the contagion. He provided his people with all the resources of
pleasure not caring for the death outside his castle: “The external world
could take care of itself. In meantime it was folly to grieve, or think.”
(Ibid.).
The windows of the castle are welded therefore nobody can sneak
inside. After the close of the fifth or sixth month and while the pestilence
rages outside, he makes a masquerade. He furnishes seven rooms with
different colours. These is a huge clock which strikes every hour. At the
twelfth strike, a masked figure catches the attention of the maskers. Nobody
knows from where this figure has come to the castle. He is covered from
head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask is made to make the
figure resembling a stiffened corpse. Also, he is dabbled in blood: “His
vesture was dabbled in bloodــ and his broad brow, with all the features of
the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror (Ibid. 269).
Prince Prospero takes a dagger and followed the figure who steps
solemnly through all of the six rooms. At last, in the seventh room, which
has the black colour on everything inside, the figure turns around to face
his pursuer, at this moment with a sharp cry the dagger falls from Prospero’s
hand and he falls dead. The other attendees follow them in the dark room.
They grasp the cloak of the figure and for their horror there is no tangible
body inside. It is the Red Death. One after another, they fall dead till the
last strike of the ebony clock which died out with the last dead person.
Through the personification of the plague, represented by the
mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim, Edgar Allan Poe
meditates on the inevitability of death; “the issue is not that people die from
the plague, but that people are plagued by death” (Riva: 1753).
Mary Ellen Snodgrass suggests that one of the pioneers of cruel
Gothicism which was originated in France is Edgar Allan Poe. She points
out that he created a branch of horror literature that changed simple plots
into compact, subtle, but unrelenting episodes of morbidity, sadism, and
gruesome anguish, both from physical pain and troubling dreams and
nightmares (Snodgrass: 63). “The Masque of the Red Death” belongs to this
type of gothic form.
According to Andrew Smith, the gothic form has certain definite
elements which characterize it from the other forms. Among these elements
are representations of ruins, castles, monasteries, and forms of monstrosity,
and images of insanity, transgression, the supernatural, and excess. All of
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these typically characterize the form (Smith: 3). Also, he mentions that
some critics analyse gothic texts as dreams or in other words nightmares.
“The Masque of Red Death” can be seen as a dreadful dream which ends
with the death of all the characters. In fact, this is what really people
suffered during the pandemic of Covid-19. It seems that pandemics turn
people’s lives into hell- or nightmares.
Atef Adel Almahameed and others argue the inevitability of death in
Poe’s “The Masque of Red death”. Death is inevitable. No matter what one
may do to avoid or delay his/her meeting with death. It will come
eventually. Almahameed states that Poe compares death to a monster which
pursuits a man. It causes dread in our hearts. “All man’s attempts to run
away, or escape death will turn to failure as death is unavoidable; facing or
confronting it is inevitable” (Almahameed: 98).
Although Prospero and his wealthy companions hide in the abbey,
death comes to their firmly guarded abbey. The horrible scene of death at
the end of the story suggests Poe’s prospective concerning the inevitability
of death though the characters locked themselves far away from the
spreading deadly disease. May it is better if all people joined together to
defeat it. It is unfair and unreasonable to be selfish in times of distress.
While death is outside harvesting poor people, Prospero and his noble
companion are celebrating life. Nonetheless, death eventually reached
them. The seven rooms, the colours of these rooms, the gigantic clock, and
the masked figure are symbols of life, danger and death. However, there are
many studies about the allegorical nature of the story. The story belongs to
the gothic form. It is a manifest of the inevitability of death in the time of
overwhelming pandemic.
3. Survival of the Powerful:
Jack London (1876-1916) is an American novelist and journalist. His
story “The Scarlet Plague”, published in 1912, was set in a ravaged and
wild America. The events take place in 2073, sixty years after the spread of
a devastating disease called the Red Death. According to the narrator it is
an uncontrollable epidemic that depopulated and almost destroyed the
world in 2013. The narrator’s name is Granser as he is called by his teenage
grandsons. In fact, he is one of the very few survivors. His real name is
James Howard Smith, a professor in university. However, the story starts
with a savage old man who is wrapped with goat skin and his grandson
Edwin. After teasing him, his other grandsons succeed to persuade him to
talk about his past: the past of the whole world.
He tells his incredulous and near-savage grandsons how the
pandemic spread in the world and people’s reactions towards contagion and
death. in fact, even though it was published more than a century ago, “The
Scarlet Plague” sounds contemporary because it allows modern readers to
reflect on the worldwide fear of pandemics, a fear that remains very much
alive (Riva: 1753). Like many of the literary works which handle the
calamities of infectious disease, this long story is considered as an example
Asst. Professor. Shaima' Abdullah Jassim, Journal of Al-Frahedis Arts, Tikrit University | Vol (13) Issue (47) Part I | September 2021 | Pages (441-449)
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of the works which reported the horrible consequences of this catastrophic
disease.
Unlike Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death, London’s story is set
in the future in 2073. In spite of having the same theme (i.e., pandemics)
there are many other differences between the two works. Nonetheless they
share most of the common factual proceedings at the times of pandemics.
In his story London predicted what might happen in the future. He portrays
the world in the 21st. century as returning back to backwardness.
Granser tells his grandsons about the technology which flourished in
his time sixty years ago “We talked through the air in those days, thousands
and thousands of miles. And the word came of a strange disease that had
broken in New York” (London: 20). The signs of the plague appear in a
very short time from infection. The face becomes red. The infected person
feels a loss of sensation starts from the feet the it reaches to the heart. Then,
the infected is dead within half an hour or less.
Mobs of prowlers get hold of all the cities killing people, stealing and
burning buildings:
"In the midst of our civilization, down in our slums and
labor- ghettos, we had bred a race of barbarians, of
savages; and now, in the time of our calamity, they
turned upon us like the wild beasts they were and
destroyed us. And they destroyed themselves as well”
(London: 30).
Like some other writers before him, London raised a cruel criticism
against the society that is seen as the major reason behind the destruction
of the world. According to London’s opinion, capitalism led to the
increasing of population and to overcrowding, and this overcrowding led to
plague. Consequently, capitalism is presented as the ultimate cause of the
pandemic and thus harshly criticized. As the human race in London’s world
was dying, the earth is collapsed by fires. The end of the world: this is how
the pandemic was perceived. People suffer from the fear of the disease and
the terror of the fact of the end of the world. Because of the prowlers, the
cities are destroyed by fire (Riva: 1755).
In these two stories, it is evident that when plague spread, no
medicine can help, and nobody can stop it from striking; the only way to
escape was to avoid contact with infected persons and contaminated objects
(Riva: 1753). This what exactly happened when Corona-virus struck the
world. It is the same predicament whenever there is a contagion for ages.
In Poe’s “The Masque of Red Death” all the characters die. But in
London’s “The Scarlet Plague” civilization is the greatest victim of the
disease:
"For sixty years that world has no longer existed for me.
I know there must be such places as New York, Europe,
Asia, and Africa; but not one word has been heard of
them- not in sixty years. With the coming of the Scarlet
Death the world fell apart, absolutely, irretrievably. Ten
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thousand years of culture and civilization passed in the
twinkling of an eye, ‘lapsed like foam” (London: 26).
Also, there is a common thing in the two stories of the study. The
division of people into two major groups. Those who care for their safety
and those who seem careless to the dangers of the pandemic. In “The
Masque of the Red Death” Prospero and his followers are careless to the
outer world but they are careful to lock themselves and not allowing anyone
to get into their hideout. In London's story the survivors gather and go the
laboratories of the university where Smith works as a professor. Many
families take this place as a shelter for a while. They expect death because
of the prowlers and the scarlet disease:
"While the world crashed to ruin about them and all the
air was filled with the smoke of its burning, these low
creatures gave rein to their bestiality and fought and
drank and died. And after all, what did it matter?
Everybody died anyway, the good and the bad, the
efficient and the weaklings, those that loved to live and
those that scorned to live. They passed. Everything
passed" (London: 33).
However, at the end of his narration of the destruction of the world,
Granser is optimistic. He believes that civilization will be established again:
"a hundred generations from now we may expect our decedents to start
across the Sierras, oozing slowly along… over the great continent to the
colonization of the East- a new Aryan drift around the world". In fact, the
most obvious difference between Poe's story and London's is their end. In
Poe's story all the characters in the masquerade die instantly after seeing the
figure of the Scarlet Death while in London's "The Scarlet Plague" there are
survivals that undergo a decline of education and civilization. Although it
is difficult, but they find partners and get married. The generations who
come after 60 years of the plague are ignorant like Granser's (Smith's)
grandsons. This suggests that the pestilence brings to the world the
catastrophe of ignorance after the raging death which has taken the best
men and women in all fields of knowledge. This is more dangerous than the
disease itself. The readers notice how the boys do not respect their
grandfather and he is unable to teach them respect. He also warns his
grandsons from the treasury of the doctors. The decline of the people's
ethics, morals and civilization is portrayed in "The Scarlet Plague" as the
natural consequence of the pandemic.
Conclusion:
Plagues and other diseases overwhelmed the world in the past and
the present time. They had their tremendous effect upon all the aspects of
life. Since gothic literature deal with horror and death, they have become a
suitable ground for presenting the calamities caused by pandemics. In Poe's
"The Masque of Red Death" and London's "The Scarlet Plague" the havoc
caused by contagions is presented through different prospects. Nonetheless,
they share the same argument, that is people in pandemics rage and feel
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afraid. They try to survive but sometimes in their attempt they fall into
dilemmas which lead to more ruin. Thus, the best way to outlive the
contagion is to stay away from the mob in order to protect oneself from
infection. Moreover, people should supply themselves with provisions and
the must collaborate to overpass the predicament.
It is interesting how Jack London's "The Scarlet Death" is nearly set
in a period when Covid-19 had spread in 2020. Moreover, some of the
details resemble the events followed the sweeping of the pandemic.
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