Poe depicts the crimson death as having horrific symptoms, including "sharp aches, and sudden disorientation, and then copious blood at the pores, with disintegration" in the opening to his short story (Poe). The Red Death is a fictitious depiction of the Black Death pandemic that swept over Europe during the Middle Ages. Although both diseases were very similar in nature, they weren't exactly the same thing. The Black Death was an epidemic of deadly plague bacteria spread by rats to humans. The Red Death is an episode in which a character dies with blood coming out of their pores. Here are some other differences between the Black Death and the Red Death: The Black Death killed up to half of Europe's population. The Red Death kills one person per century. The Black Death lasted for about three years before it was stopped. The Red Death will never end because it's not a real disease; it's only in stories that people die when there's blood coming out of their pores. Both the Black Death and the Red Death have influences on modern medicine. Doctors today know how to prevent and treat bubonic plague. They just don't call it the Black Death or the Red Death anymore. Instead, they call it Yersinia pestis or Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Yersinia pestis caused the Black Death.