What is The Theme of The Masque of The Red Death?

The Masque of the Red Death is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, written in 1842. It is set in the fictional country of Prospero during a time of great plague. The Red Death is a mysterious and deadly disease that ravages the country. Prince Prospero is a wealthy and powerful man who is determined to protect himself and his friends from the disease. He invites a group of nobles to his castle, where they spend their time drinking, feasting, and dancing. One day, a strange man dressed in red appears at the castle and starts causing havoc. The man is revealed to be the Red Death, and he starts killing people. Prince Prospero tries to escape but fails; he dies along with all of his guests except one woman named Madeline. She survives because she has been wearing a mask all along—the mask represents mortality itself—and thus cannot be killed by the Red Death.
The Masque of the Red Death is an allegory for the inevitability of death. It also makes a commentary on how futile it is to try to avoid death by running away from it or pretending that it doesn’t exist because we’ll always die eventually anyway.