The Cause of Death

25 The fact that Prince Prospero and his guests die in sudden after the apparition of the mysterious figure shows supernatural power and unsolved mystery in the story. The death caused by the Red Death is not the peaceful and calm one, but death as something horrifying and gloomy with unbearable pain. As he illustrates the effects of it to the victim’s body with frightening incident: “There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.” “The Mask of the Red Death” The death that happens in the story of Ligeia is caused by mysterious illness. Gradually after the narrator’s marriage with Ligeia, she becomes mysteriously ill. Although Rowena’s case is different, she gets ill because of the narrator’s intention to make her die so that the spirit of Ligeia can use her body or in other words murder; finally those two ladies die Ligeia. As quoted from American Literature The Makers and the Making by Cleanth Brooks et.al, “Consider Poe’s typical heroines. They are usually afflicted with mysterious disease. They visibly waste away before their lovers’ eyes.” 360. In this story, Ligeia gets ill because of mysterious disease. In Ligeia, he illustrates how sorrowful and terrible the death of a beautiful and lovely woman is. As many critics to Edgar Allan Poe say: Poe’s greatest specialty is the death of a beautiful woman. This fact is supported by Porges, when Poe was thinking about how to create a powerful poem: “And in a sad poem, what is the saddest thing of all to write about? He knew the answer-DEATH All that remained to be answered is this 26 question: WHEN IS DEATH THE MOST POETIC? Edgar knew that, too: when it comes to the death of a beautiful woman.” 124. With his brilliant mind concerning death, Poe creates another story about death, The Cask of Amontillado. This time the major theme is about revenge. Montressor, whose heart is hurt, wants to revenge Fortunato. Using amontillado as lure, he brings Fortunato to the vault. The atmosphere inside the vault is used by Poe to create horror and gloominess which finally delivers us to the death of Fortunato. Deluded by the amontillado, Fortunato is chained to the wall and burried alive in the vault by Montressor. Realizing what actually happens to him, Fortunato screams and begs Montressor to set him free, but it is too late. Fortunato dies because of dehydration and starvation inside the vault The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe: A Collection of Stories. From the comparison above about the cause of the death in the three short stories, again, Poe adapts the characteristics of gothic fiction. He uses supernatural as seen in The Mask of the Red Death which is presented by the mysterious figure and sudden death of Prince Prospero and the guests; murder in The Cask of Amontillado in which Montressor kills Fortunato to make revenge and in Ligeia in which the narrator gives poison to Rowena to make Ligeia be able to use the body; and above all, death itself. All the facts above support Poe’s perception of death which is something fearful and horrifying which causes great terror to the characters of the stories. He perceives death can happen because of illness, other people, and disease. The coming of death caused by those things is not nice and moreover it is painful or even terrifying and horrifying. Hence in his three stories, the characters feel terribly afraid of it. 27

3. The Characters’ View of Death

Earlier in the story of The Mask of the Red Death, Poe tells the readers that Prince Prospero is happy, hopeful, but at the same time worried. He is happy because the deadly plague does not infect him. He then decides to seal the gate and ignores the condition outside his palace in which many people are killed by the Red Death “The Masque of the Red Death”. Poe shows the readers that Prince Prospero is afraid of death to come to him. We can see further about this from the reaction of Prince Prospero when a strange figure comes up during the party. He feels insulted, mad and afraid. Though he is afraid, his madness forces him to unmask and get the figure which finally leads him to death itself. Due to Ligeia’s illness, the narrator becomes so worried. He accompanies Ligiea until her death. After the death of Ligeia, he feels so broken hearted and miserable. To get rid of these feelings, he starts to drink and use opium. Again, Poe creates the narrator becomes mad and obsessed. Therefore, when he later gets married to Rowena, the image of Ligeia and her death are haunting him. He starts to give poison to Rowena so that he can revive Ligeia back using the body of Rowena Ligeia. There are two main characters in this story, Montressor and Fortunato. Blinded with madness and revenge, Montressor sees the death of Fortunato as the fair price to pay, for Fortunato has hurt him on his heart. Otherwise, Fortunato who finally realizes the bad intention of Montressor begs him to set himself free. He is terribly afraid of being left and buried alive by Montressor in the vault but it is too late. The Montressor leaves him and seals the vault The Cask of 28 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.