What diseases did the other differently-dressed "brothers" of the Red Death represent? I can guess two of them:
The one in bright yellow probably represented Yellow Fever and the one in black probably represented the Black Death. But I don't know the others.
One was in a white robe, one was in orange, one was wearing purple, and the other was wearing light blue. Were these other four just added as extras?
I agree about the Yellow Fever and Black Death, there was also a condition called "Green Fever" or "Green Sickness". It was also known as "The Disease of Virgins" and in modern terminology is simple anaemia. It may be that this was the light blue figure and the colour simply showedmup badly. There were conditions known as "White Fever" caused by drinking contaminated milk and also "White Swelling" which was tuberculosis of the bone. The orange one is a bit of a puzzle still, it could be "Bronze John" although that is another name for Yellow Fever or possibly "Scarlet Fever" since scarlet is an orangey shade of red. As for the purple robe, my best guess is that it was what the doctors of the day called "Puerperal Fever" or "Puerperal Exhaution" but the patirnts mispronounced the condition when recalling the information and so it came out as "Purple Fever". The condition is associated with having children, the latter being death during cildbirth, the former being sepicaemia due to poor yduring the child's delivery. Childbirth is a strenuous process and was even more so then. It's understandable that a woman who had over exerted herself during the process may look exceptionally red in the face, turning somewhat purple due to lack of oxygen in the blood. Similarly, someone suffering from septicaemia (Today's medical advances how that this is often accompanied by meningitis) will often develop a rash of large, purple blotches. http://www.emedicinehealth.com/sepsis_blood_infection/page9_em.htm
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This pretty much explains the theories for the Red death and the other deaths:
"The disease of the Red Death is a fictitious one. Poe describes it as causing "sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores" leading to death within half an hour.
It is likely that the disease was inspired by tuberculosis (or consumption, as it was known then), as Poe's wife Virginia was suffering from the disease at the time the story was written. Like the character of Prince Prospero, Poe tried to ignore the fatality of the disease.Poe's mother Eliza and foster mother Frances Allan had also died of tuberculosis. Alternately, the "red death" may refer to cholera; Poe would have witnessed an epidemic of cholera in Baltimore, Maryland in 1831. Others have suggested that the plague is actually Bubonic plague or the Black death, emphasized by the climax of the story featuring the "Red" Death in the "black" room. It has also been suggested that the Red Death is not a disease or sickness at all but something else that is shared by all of humankind inherently."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death#The_.22Red_De ath.22
Basically, they may represent actual diseases, causes of death, or even be metaphors for the negative qualities of man kind
"What diseases did the other differently-dressed "brothers" of the Red Death represent?" I suggest the disease of Roger Corman wanting a luridly-colored film! In other words, none. Just there to take full advantage of the color film stock...
share...maybe it was Roger adding the color because he could. I can see why someone would ask that question but sometimes a rose is just a rose. Stop looking for deep mystical meanings and messages in every little detail.
shareI believe White robe warns us of Whitey of course, Orange warns us of the Spray tan epidemic of the 21st century and Purple warns us of Princes awful 1998 NewPower Soul album
shareI think they are representations of death...just by different ways.
shareWhen the first four were together, I thought they were supposed to be the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a white one, a black one, a red one, and I thought the yellow one was a substitute for the pale one with a demon.
share"Stop looking for deep mystical meanings and messages in every little detail."
Why? "Looking for deep mystical meanings and messages in every little detail" is a lot of fun.
Anyway, to answer the question:
Black- Black death (obviously).
White- Tuberculosis.
Yellow- Yellow fever.
Blue- Cholera.
And Purple? Orange?
For that matter, how many WERE there at the end?
I think they are representations of death...just by different ways.
Because so many well known diseases are coded by color: Black plague, Yellow Fever, cholera is blue death, TB is white death.
shareThe Red Death refers to himself as Death. I think that pretty much says it all. Death incorporates more than just disease. Had he called himself Pestilence instead, maybe these assumptions that the colors all represent disease may carry more water. Poe's story doesn't feature other entities. That was just a Roger Corman idea. The story is about death, and the red death is just one variation.
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Whose idea was it for the word LISP to have an S in it? [giveup]
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jokerswild1 said
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Some of my guesses would be:
Blue Death - Cholera
Black Death - Black Plague
Yellow Death - Yellow Fever
White Death - Tuberculosis
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You're right! I think Red Death is necrotizing fasciitis and Purple Death is puerperal fever
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🐱 *nya* *purr*
As they walk off right at the end they are all in line ala the colour spectrum. I took it as they all represented the full spectrum of deaths opportunities.
shareAlthough it is coincidence, I prefer to think of them as punishment for the seven deadly sins.
Or maybe when they weren't needed as much anymore in the world they became the Seven Dwarves?