To know oneself fully, one must be willing to journey into the depths of the shadow.
The Red Death, the unrelenting force at the heart of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, is more than a symbol of mortality. It embodies the shadow self—the hidden, denied, and often feared aspects of our being. Its presence in the story is a stark reminder that no matter how high the walls we build or how intricate the masks we wear, the shadow cannot be kept out. It moves silently, inexorably, until it stands before us, demanding to be seen.