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Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe: A Collection of Stories. However, Poe has ever created the same plot of death in Berenice and the Fall of the House of Usher
through one of the characters, Madeline, in which in this story the character is Fortunato. They have great fear of death by being buried alive although actually
they are already buried alive Cleanth Brooks et.al 359. According to Bergen in his book Old Boston in Early Photographs, Poe
got the idea to write about The Cask of Amontillado from a story he heard in Castle Island when he was still joining the army 106. The story he heard was
about a revenge done by some soldiers to Lieutenant Gustavis Drane because he had killed one of their friends. The soldiers made Gustavis drunk then brought
him to the dungeon, tied him to the wall and left him alone there Susan 37. Although it was years after he heard about the story, Poe could still remember it
very clearly as it was just told. Again, through the comparison of the characters’ view of the death,
Poe’s perception of death is still the same. He perceives death through the view or reaction of the characters. Death is presented as something fearful, threatening and
horrifying. The characters’ view of the death shows how the death itself can make the characters become terrified, afraid, and mad as seen from Prince Prospero in
The Mask of the Red Death, the narrator in Ligeia, and Fortunato in The Cask of Amontillado. Death also causes deep sadness and sorrow to the other character as
shown in Ligeia through the male character’s view or reaction due to the death of Ligeia.
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B. How Poe’s Perception of Death as Revealed in The Mask of the Red
Death , Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado Reflects His Life
Being a man surrounded by death and terrible situation makes almost the entire collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s works is about death. This includes his
three short stories The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado.
As quoted from The Norton Anthology of American Literature, “The life of Poe is the most melodramatic of any the major American writers of his
generation.” 1353. Death seems very close in Poe’s life. During his life, Poe experienced several deaths happened and most of them were the deaths of people
he loved. They were: the death of his mother, Mrs. Jane Stanard, his foster mother, his elder brother, his foster mother, his grandmother, and finally his
beloved Virginia. Time during which Poe wrote the story of The Mask of the Red Death
was occupied with sorrow for Poe himself. The inspiration of this short story may have been the incident that happened when he and Virginia attended a party in
January 1842. As quoted from Porges: “The new year, 1842, brought Edgar a new sorrow which made past
sufferings seem small. One evening in January, Edgar sat with a few friends listening to Virginia sing. Suddenly the high, clear voice stopped
and blood poured from her throat. Edgar rushed to catch her as she fell to the floor. She was carried to a bed and Edgar went to bring the doctor.
Virginia was suffering from a serious disease, the same one that had taken the life of Henry Poe.” 112.
From this incident Poe noticed a death caused by a terrible and dangerous disease in the case of his dear Virginia was tuberculosis, the disease
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that killed his mother, his foster mother and his elder brother earlier. When he created The Mask of the Red Death, he created a horrible disease which was
similar with tuberculosis called the Red Death plague. The story which tells the useless effort of Price Prospero to stop and avoid the death to come is reflected by
Poe’s own action and attempts to make Virginia better. Edgar Allan Poe would do anything to make Virginia recovered. However it was nonsense, the health of
Virginia was getting worse day by day. He tried to ignore the fatality of the disease just like Prince Prospero does Kenneth 108. Virginia died on January 30,
1847 at the age of 24. This really shocked Edgar and this was the greatest tragedy in his life. He lost a person he loved more than everything; a lovely person who
was always there to accompany him during the suffering time and to hope for a better future with her great faith and love Porges 95-128.
Married to Virginia gave Poe more spirit and inspiration. He stopped drinking and started creating several works. Some of them were inspired by his
lovely cousin yet wife, Virginia. Works such as Berenice, Elenora, and Ligeia were completely inspired by Virginia, the characteristics, the life, and the death
95. In Ligeia, Poe created a character of a lady who was much likely as his dear Virginia. The beauty of Ligeia makes the narrator becomes obsessed to her and
afraid of losing her. This fact is based on Poe’s feeling about his dear Virginia. However, in the story both Ligeia and Rowena die, although at the end of the
story, it shows that somehow Ligeia revives from her death. The sorrow and horrible feeling about the death of beautiful woman becomes powerful theme in
this story and Poe knows it very well. This perception of death can be a reflection
