In the story,The Masque of the Red Death, what is the disease Poe is referring to?

-- Anonymous, October 05, 2000

Answers

It wasn't a plague or disease. It was a guy in a costume that killed people.

-- Anonymous, October 05, 2000

Tecia,

Most likely, it was some imagined form of a tuberculosis (consumption) epidemic that was sweeping the land. Many of the sypmtoms of consumption are alluded to in the story and Poe's wife Virginia is known to have died from it after much suffering.

Regards,

-- Anonymous, October 06, 2000

It was a very worsned form of tuburculosis. He used it to describe how all the women he loved died

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2000

One of the main symptoms of tuburculosis is the coughing up of blood, thus "the red death".

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

This disease consists of constant coughing fits along with spitting up blood. Common symptoms of this illness are fever, inflammation, headache, soreness of throat, palate, breast and lungs. Basically, the disease creates universal disorder of the body.

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2004