"The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe could be the least optimistic writer ever. His stories contain decay, sadness, death... never a happy ending or an optimistic point of view. The Masque of the Red Death is definitely not the exception. 

In this story, Poe tells us about a plague, "The Red Death", which made people bleed from every part of their bodies. Disgusting, horrible, but that was the story's reality. And so the prince, Prince Prospero, along with his close friends and maybe family, hid in his abbey to prevent the Red Death to take them to its hell. 

And so, everybody was there in the seven room abbey. Everybody wearing their respective masks, as it was a mascarade. Six rooms were full of color, full of life; and the left one was black and red. Terrifying. No one dared to enter into that room, and when the clock inside it hit the hour, everybody would stop doing whatever they were doing but breathing. After the clock stopped sounding, everybody would return to their activities. 

An unexpected guest, a man bleeding, with a mask that was actually not a mask, arrived, causing Prince Prospero to get angry at the joke of disguising as the "Red Death". Only that it was not a custom. It was the Red Death which walked passing every single room until it reached the black one, giving death to everyone. 

The message in this story is very clear. Death. Hiding from it. Colorful and cheerful life in the different stages of life. The last room of our lives: darkness, death, and a clock which tells the time you have left. And when you notice that time is ticking by, you get paralyzed, but then continue with your life. And finally, the most representative: Life will always end in Death, and if Death is near you, you will not be able to avoid it. Having the most powerful fortress will not make Death turn away. 

So that was a story full of allegories, full of hidden messages within its different elements, such as de Red Death itself, the rooms, the prince, the abbey, the clock... everything represented more than in their main escence. I believe it is a very enjoyable story if you can read the allegories.