Object of the Study

17 mysterious figure, Prospero tries to catch him. They run throughout the rooms and when finally Prince Prospero can catch the figure, he falls and suddenly dies. Other guests try to attack the figure but they find nobody inside the mask and cloak. Finally all of them die because the Red Death has come inside the palace The Mask of the Red Death, Edgar Allan Poe: A Collection of Stories. The second short story is Ligeia which tells a story of Lady Ligeia who is so beautiful. The narrator describes Lady Ligeia as tall, slender, and, in her later days, emaciated. The narrator is so obsessed with Ligeia, however as time goes by Lady Ligeia becomes mysteriously ill and just before her death she asks the narrator to read a poem. She dies at the same time as the narrator finishes reading the poem. The narrator feels very sad then he moves to England where he soon marries another woman, Lady Rowena. During the first month after marriage, the narrator knows that Lady Rowena does not like him and soon after that, the narrator starts to do evil thing by giving poison to Rowena. He wants her Lady Ligeia back. Day by day, the condition of Lady Rowena gets worse and finally dies. The next day after Lady Rowena’s death, the narrator sits alone beside her corpse but his mind is thinking about the memory of Ligeia. Something strange happens that night, the narrator sees that Lady Rowena is showing signs of life but only in a very short time. However the memory of Lady Ligeia fills his mind but then suddenly he is so shocked for the corpse stands up and moves to the middle of the room. The narrator is sure that it is the corpse of Lady Rowena but it seems different. He glances to the figure with black hair as raven. He is sure, that it is Lady Ligeia who is standing in the bridal room Ligeia, Edgar Allan Poe: A 18 Collection of Stories. This story was first published in 1838 in a Baltimore Magazine. The last short story is The Cask of Amontillado which was first published in 1846 in Godey’s. It tells a story about Fortunato who loves the Spanish wine of Amontillado. However, his close friend, Montressor feels insulted by him somehow and he wants to make revenge. In a carnival season Montressor who wears a mask of black silk approaches Fortunato who wears multicolored costume of the jester, including a cone cap with bells and lures him with Amontillado. They go to Montressor’s vault and because of his curiosity to the Amontillado, Fortunato does not care about his cough and the men walk into the vault, where human bones decorated the walls. When finally they find the Amontilado and Fortunato gets drunk because of it, Montressor binds him with chain to a stone. Montressor then blocks the entrance and traps Fortunato inside the vault. Fortunato screams and at the first time he thinks that it is only a joke made by Montressor. Finally Montressor finishes his job and leaves Fortunato, he buries Fortunato alive The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe: A Collection of Stories.

B. Approach of the Study

In this study, I used biographical approach as the primary approach. This approach was used to find how Poe’s perception of death as revealed in his works: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado reflect his life. 19 In addition, I analyzed Poe’s perception of death as revealed in his works: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. Hence, I attempted to use the features in the text of his works which are the death figure, the cause of the character’s death, and the view or reaction of the characters towards death in comparing his three works to reveal his perception of death.

C. Method of the Study

In this study, I carried out library study. It means that I tried to gather and compile data by doing researches from books. I also used electronic sources to enhance the data as the secondary sources. First, I read the primary sources which were Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories I have mentioned previously; they were The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. The aim of this action is to grasp and understand each story so that I could get the idea of the stories. Second, as my secondary source, I used handbooks related to literary works and the biography of Edgar Allan Poe such as Reading and Writing about Literature by Mary Rohrberger and Samuel Woods, A Short Guide to Writing about Literature by Sylvian Barnet, Edgar Allan Poe by Irwin Porges, and American Literature The Makers and the Making by Cleanth Brooks, et.al. Those were used to find the biographical background of Edgar Allan Poe to support the ideas of his perception of death. I also realized that it was necessary to refer to some electronic sources such as http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiShort_story. These electronic sources were used to enrich the information about Edgar Allan Poe and to support the writer’s