The Red Death is a fictional disease created by Edgar Allan Poe in his short story, "The Masque of the Red Death." It is not a real disease.
While Poe doesn't explicitly state what real-world illness inspired the Red Death, some interpretations and modern comparisons suggest possibilities:
- Tuberculosis: This is a common association due to some shared symptoms and the historical context of high mortality rates during Poe's time.
- Ebola: More recent interpretations, particularly in film adaptations, loosely equate the Red Death to Ebola due to the disease's virulence and hemorrhagic symptoms. However, this is an anachronistic comparison, as Ebola was not known during Poe's lifetime.
Ultimately, the Red Death is a symbolic representation of death itself, characterized by its swiftness, universality, and the futility of attempts to escape it.
