In analysing the short stories, I am using intrinsic method, which I read the stories again and again to understand the stories. Then I continue with selecting
data or taking some notes and quotations from statements of the short stories. After that, I analyse the data by interpretating. The interpretation is described in
order to find out the truth offered by the data. I am also collecting data from books, journals, some information from the Internet,which relates to Edgar Allan
Poe, and other written sources as the library research.
1.6. Significance of Analysis
This thesis is made to gain more knowledge about the Gothic elements that can be found in Poe’s three short stories. I also hope that this thesis will be useful
for the readers who want to widen their knowledge and enrich their interpretation about Gothic elements shown in Poe’s three short stories.
1.7. Review of Related Literature
There are several books related to the title of the thesis that I use as reading materials and source of theories to support the analysis. The followings
are the title and reviews of the books. From An Introduction to Fiction, by X. J. Kennedy 1976, I can find the
way to analyse a short story. In getting a full achievement of short story’s interpretation, I need to know and understand about its components. And from this
book, I can find kinds of the components and the explanations clearly and easily understood. The components that I can find in a short story are plot,
characterization, point of view, theme, setting, style and symbol. Setting is the time and place of a story and in most cases the details of description are given to
the reader directly by the narrator. Point of view is character’s attitude toward the situation. Usually it is a voice that provides information about the story. While
characterization is a description of the character which helps us to understand the author’s intent. So with these explanations, I realise that these components may
help my analysis better.
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I get the explanation of Gothic and its elements from Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature, by Kathleen Kuiper ed. 1995. This book really
helps me a lot in finding and deciding what Gothic elements that I can use to analyse these three short stories. Gothic is a style of fiction characterized by the
use of medieval settings, a murky athmosphere of horror and gloom, macabre, mysterious and violent incidents. To make a work belongs to Gothic genre, it
must at least contain the elements of Gothic, such as mystery, horror and madness of the character. The mixture of these elements can make the reader feels fear,
curious, amazed and so on. Without these elements, there won’t be Gothic taste and lack of impression to the reader.
From Dictionary of Literary terms Literary Theory, by J.A.Cuddon 1996, I found the historical background of Gothic fiction and its development
and the characteristics of it. So from this book I can understand more about Gothic fiction. Besides, I can also find the historical background of horror story as
well. Overall, this is a very helpful book to get more information about Gothic, the elements of Gothic and other literary terms.
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CHAPTER II A BRIEF DESCRIPTION IN GOTHIC LITERATURE
