Death is an abstract idea; by personifying it as a predator in the form of a masked figure, Poe intends to make it a concrete concept. In choosing a human form, Poe makes death more understandable; it is like us, capable of thought and action, though it does not speak. In doing so Poe also makes death a manifestation of evil. Because tuberculosis raged through the early nineteenth-century, death was considered by many in that period to be omnipresent and a genuine threat regardless of one's overall health. Poe capitalizes on this fear and anguish by embodying death as a remorseless enemy capable of appearing and disappearing at will, striking openly when people perhaps least expect it. The fact that death is able to gain access to Prince Prospero's castle suggests that wealth, social standing, and preventative efforts (like locking guests in and presumably locking death out) are useless against one of the universe's most potent and indifferent forces.
The Red Death is a disease that is decimating Prince Prospero's kingdom in this story. It is called the Red Death because of all the blood its victims shed throughout the disease's short course. They, apparently, bleed from their major orifices as well as their pores, before they meet their terribly gory and blood-soaked deaths. The disease is terrible, but it is just a disease: it has no intention or goals or will of its own, that is, until Poe personifies it. In personifying the Red Death, a horrific disease, Poe gives it all of these things; he imbues it with a life of its own, with the intention to cause destruction and to leave no survivors in its wake. This makes it all the more terrifying to characters and readers alike.
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