Poe`s perception of death as revealed in his short stories : The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia and The Cask of Amontillado.

POE’S PERCEPTION OF DEATH AS REVEALED IN HIS SHORT STORIES: THE MASK OF THE RED DEATH,

LIGEIA, ANDTHE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By Heindra Pradana Student Number: 05 1214 026

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

i

POE’S PERCEPTION OF DEATH AS REVEALED IN HIS SHORT STORIES: THE MASK OF THE RED DEATH,

LIGEIA, ANDTHE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By Heindra Pradana Student Number: 05 1214 026

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to address my gratitude to those who have so kindly given favors in finishing my thesis.

First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Allah SWT for the never ending love and grace. I thank Allah for guiding me pass the hard time in finishing this thesis.

I am deeply indebted my major sponsor, Henny Herawati, S.Pd., M.Hum., who has patiently given me part of her precious time to read, correct, and improve my thesis and for lending me her books. I am deeply grateful for her suggestion, advice, assistance, and criticism in every part of my study during the completion of this thesis.

I also want to express my great honor to Silvia Rehulina Ginting, S.Pd., for becoming my proof reader and for the suggestions and kindness to me. My great honor also goes to Pak Ouda and Bu Dewi for lending me the books I am dying to find that improves my thesis a lot.

I would like to express my gratitude to all lecturers of English Education Study Program who have given me valuable and everlasting knowledge. The same expression goes to the secretariat staff, Mba Dhanniek and Mba Tari, for helping me in the administration procedures.

My greatest gratitude is mostly addressed to my beloved parents, Drs. Sarjono and Ibu Suci Nuryanabeti, for supporting me morally and financially, for their everlasting love, guidance, and attention. My deeply love also goes to my

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brothers, Bonggi Prakosa and Welli Prasetya. What a wonderful family I have with all of you.

I thank all friends of 2005 PBI’s students, especially Adit “Kotak”,

Daniel “Dancong”, Wahyu “Joex”, Rimas, Datia, Tunjung, and Nita for being great partners in Milestone English Course. I thank my partners in Green Leaf English Course, Vivi “Teh Len”, Putri, Ayik, Intan, Siska, and Dee for the great time we share together.

I thank my partners in Language Institute of Sanata Dharma University, Bu Retno, Mba Ita, Mba Nana, Mba Ajeng, Mba Tika especially to Dea “Nyolot”, Dee, Siska, and Tetty, for valuable experience I have with all of you. I thank the members of Youth English Community, Mba Icha, Mas Nug, Mas

Ponk, Mba Venta, Mba Retno, Siska “Oneng”, Tunjung, Jojo, Banu, Rista,

Laras, for the chance to develop myself with all of you, for the laughter, cry, and fear we share. I also thank Sedik, Tepan, and Hesti for being my lifetime partners.

My special thank goes to my beloved Maria Eka Lestari who always accompanies me even in difficult time. I thank her for the great love, support, and understanding.

Last but not least, I would like to thank all people who I cannot mention their names, for their support and prayer so that I can finish this thesis. May Allah SWT grant them with peace, joy, and happiness.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE…….………..………... i

APPROVAL PAGES……... ii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY... iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………... v

TABLE OF CONTENTS... vii

ABSTRACT... x

ABSTRAK……… xi

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study………

B. Problem Formulation……….

C. Objectives of the Study……….

D. Benefits of the Study……….

E. Definition of Terms………

1 3 3 3 4

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Review……….

1.Critical Approach………...

2.Theory of Gothic Fiction……… B. Critical Biography of Edgar Allan Poe………...

6 6 8 10

viii

C. Theoretical Framework………... 15

CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study……….

B. Approach of the Study………

C. Method of the Study………

16 18 19

CHAPTER IV. ANALYSIS

A. Edgar Allan Poe’s Perception of Death as Revealed in The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado……….

1. Death Figure………...

2. The Cause of Death………...………

3. The Characters’ View of Death…….………... 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………

21 22 24 27

29

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusions……….

B. Suggestions……….

1.Suggestion for Future Research……… 2. Suggestion for English Language Teaching………....

34 37 37 39

REFERENCES………..……… 44

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Appendix 1

Lesson Plan and Material of Teaching Intensive Reading II………... 46

Appendix 2

Lesson Plan and Material of Teaching Public Speaking I………... 58

Appendix 3

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ABSTRACT

Pradana, Heindra. (2009). Poe’s Perception of Death as Revealed in His Short Stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Death is one of many phenomena that must be faced by every single person in this world. People perceive and face death differently from one to another. This has inspired me to conduct this study. This study discusses Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado which present and reveal death.

There are two issues that are discussed in this thesis. They are (1) what is Poe’s perception of death as revealed in The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado? and (2) how does Poe’s perception of death as revealed in The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado reflect Poe’s life?

The method employed in this study is library research. I obtained the data from the three short stories themselves as the primary source. Whereas the secondary sources which are used to answer the issues above are the references from books and electronic articles about literary works and the life of Edgar Allan Poe which are supportive and relevant to this study. The approach I used to analyze the issues is biographical approach since this study refers to the life of Edgar Allan Poe.

The conclusion of the analysis is that in the three short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe perceives death as something fearful, terrible and horrifying, and not the calm and peaceful one. It can be seen in the analysis by comparing the death figure, the cause of death, and the characters’ view of death in those three short stories.

Edgar Allan Poe’s perception of death as seen in his short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado is influenced by his real life. During his life, he experienced seeing and facing death of the persons he loved and most of them were so tragic and left great sadness to him. Moreover, his life is rarely happy. He often quarreled with his foster father that led to his intention to take a revenge to his foster father. Those experiences of life are reflected in the work of Edgar Allan Poe as his perception of death itself.

Besides providing the suggestion for possible future researches on Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado, this thesis also proposes material to teach English by using excerpts of the stories in teaching Intensive Reading II and Public Speaking I.

xi ABSTRAK

Pradana, Heindra. (2009). Poe’s Perception of Death as Revealed in His Short Stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Kematian adalah salah satu dari banyak fenomena yang harus dihadapi oleh setiap orang di dunia ini. Orang-orang melihat dan menghadapi kematian dengan cara yang berbeda satu dengan yang lain. Hal ini telah menginsiprasi saya dalam melakukan penelitian ini. Penelitian ini mendiskusikan tentang cerita pendek Edgar Allan Poe: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado yang menyuguhkan dan mengungkapkan kematian.

Ada dua isu yang akan didiskusikan dalam skripsi ini, yaitu (1) apa persepsi Poe tentang kematian sebagaimana terlihat di The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado dan (2) bagaimana persepsi Poe tentang kematian sebagaimana terlihat di The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado menggambarkan kehidupan Poe.

Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah studi pustaka. Saya mengumpulkan data dari tiga cerita pendek tersebut sebagi sumber utama. Sedangkan sumber tambahan yang digunakan untuk menjawab isu di atas adalah referensi dari buku-buku dan artikel elektronik tentang karya sastra dan kehidupan Edgar Allan Poe yang mendukung dan sesuai dengan penelitian ini. Pendekatan yang saya gunkan untuk menganalisa isu-isu tersebut adalah pendekatan biografi karena penelitian ini berkenaan dengan kehidupan Edgar Allan Poe.

Kesimpulan dari analisa adalah bahwa di dalam tiga cerita pendek: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe melihat kematian sebagai sesuatu yang menakutkan, mengerikan, dan bukan yang tenang dan damai. Hal ini dapat dilihat di dalam analisa dengan membandingkan sosok kematian, penyebab kematian, dan pandangan karakter terhadap kematian dalam tiga cerita pendek tersebut.

Persepsi Edgar Allan Poe tentang kematian sebagaimana terlihat di cerita pendek karyanya: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado dipengaruhi oleh kehidupan nyatanya. Selama hidupnya, Poe mengalami, melihat, dan menghadapi kematian dari orang-orang yang dicintainya. Terlebih lagi, hidupnya sangat jarang sekali bahagia, dia sering bertengkar dengan ayah angkatnya dan berujung pada keinginannya untuk membalas dendam. Pengalaman-pengalaman tersebut direfleksikan dalam karyanya sebagai persepsinya tentang kematian itu sendiri.

Selain menyediakan saran untuk penelitian-penelitian selanjutnya tentang cerita pendek Edgar Allan Poe: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado, skripsi ini juga menawarkan materi pengajaran Bahasa Inggris dengan menggunakan petikan dari cerita pendek di atas untuk Intensive Reading II dan Public Speaking I .

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of five parts. They are the background of study, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms. In background of the study, the writer discusses the reason of choosing the topic. In problem formulation, the writer exemplifies the research problems. Objectives of the study explain the goal of the study. Benefits of the study give explanation on who can get benefits from the study. In the last part, the writer discusses the definition of some terms related to the study.

A. Background of the Study

Reading literary works can enrich our mind with knowledge. Literary works portray the reality of social life. Danziger and Johnson stated that stories are the imitation of varied experience of human being, the imitation of our life, including human relationship (34). There are many phenomena that can be found in daily life and they are imitated in literary works. From the literary works we can also find the point of view of the author. They show us the way of thinking of the author about something. Moreover, an author usually writes stories based on his or her experience in the society where he or she lives.

Short stories, as a kind or genre of literary works, also imitate our daily life. From short stories we can also observe the point of view of the author about

something. Hence, from short stories we are able to find the reflection of life based on the author’s perception.

Since literary works portray the phenomena in our life, different kinds of phenomena, such as falling in love, sadness, even death are commonly found in literary works. Those phenomena are usually felt and experienced by the character(s) in the story. The phenomena which happen in our life can be categorized into two groups, planned and unplanned. Some examples of planned phenomena are marriage, graduation, baby born, while one obvious unplanned phenomenon is death. People cannot escape from death and we are all going to die.

Death as one of various phenomena of our life is often presented in stories. Edgar Allan Poe is one of famous authors who often present death in his stories, even in almost all of his works. The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado are some examples of his works which are related to death. In those short stories, he presents death itself through various symbols.

This topic is interesting to be discussed because we can understand Poe’s perception of death as presented in his works: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado and how he presents it. By knowing his perception of death and how it is related to his real life, it is expected that it give clear point of view to do the analysis of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. This study, thus, attempts to reveal his perception of death as revealed in The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado and how it reflects his real life.

B. Problem Formulation

Based on the background stated above, there are two things that would be discussed by the writer in this study. They are:

1. What is Poe’s perception of death as revealed in The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado?

2. How does Poe’s perception of death as revealed in The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado reflect Poe’s life?

C. Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are first, to discuss Poe’s perception of death as revealed in his works: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. The second one, this study aims to exemplify the relation of Poe’s perception of death with his personal life.

D. Benefits of the Study

There are three benefits of this study. First, this study is hoped to share knowledge and understanding of Edgar Allan Poe and his works. This study can hopefully give additional information for readers who want to study literature especially American short stories by Edgar Allan Poe.

The second benefit of the study is that it tries to discover something new related with Edgar Allan Poe’s works. This study would provide new information about his perception of death and its relation with his personal life.

The third benefit is that this study provides activities to English Language teaching. By employing the excerpts of the short stories, one can create materials to teach students in the advanced level because the excerpts provide authentic materials.

E. Definition of terms

1. Perception

Perception refers to “the way you notice things, especially with senses”. (Oxford Advanced Learner’ Dictionary 986). Whereas according to Lindsay and Norman as re-quoted from www.sapdesignguild.org say “Perception is the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world” (“Introduction to Perception: Definition of Perception”). This study discusses Poe’s perception of death. Hence it means his point of view of death based on his three short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado.

2. Death

Death refers to the end of life. It is stated when the being organs are not functioned to support the life system. However, “death” may be the meaning beyond that (Warga 583). He says that there are actually three kinds of death. They are: physical death, sociological death, and psychological death.

Whereas Aiken in Dying and Death, Bereavement says, “This definition is closest in meaning to biological death, the irreversible breakdown of the respiration in an organism and the consequent loss of the ability to use

oxygen” (6). In this study, death is the physical death, the state when the being organs are not functioned to support the life system of the characters in the stories. Death in this study also refers to the death of people in Edgar Allan Poe’s life.

3. Short story

Short story is a literary genre of fictional prose narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such as novellas (in the modern sense of the term) and novels (“Short Story”). Whereas taken from Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, short story is:

“Brief fictional prose narrative. It usually presents a single significant episode or scene involving a limited number of characters. The form encourages economy of setting and concise narration; character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but seldom fully developed. A short story may concentrate on the creation of mood rather than the telling of a story.” (“short story”)

In this study, the writer would focus on three short stories by Edgar Allan Poe: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado.

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In conducting this study, I present some theories which are relevant to the analysis of the short stories. This chapter consists of three sections to be discussed: theoretical review, critical biography of Edgar Allan Poe, and theoretical framework. Theoretical review consists of two sub-sections: critical approach and theory of gothic fiction. Critical approach explains the approach that I applied in this study which is biographical approach. Theory of gothic fiction explains the features of gothic fiction. Critical biography of Edgar Allan Poe exemplifies the biography of Edgar Allan Poe. Theoretical framework explains how the theories are applied in the analysis of this study.

A. Theoretical Review

1. Critical Approach

As the imitation of life, literary works are rich of values. This makes people give their response based on their own understanding about the works (Guerin vii). In giving their response to literary works, people apply an approach or approaches depending on what they focus on. Rohrberger offers five approaches that can be implemented in the study of literature. They are formalist, biographical, socio-cultural historical, mythopoeic, and psychological approach (Rohrberger 3). Since, in conducting this study I applied biographical approach, the following explanation would be only about this approach.

Biographical approach is an approach which concerns highly on the appreciation of the author’s idea and personality. Moreover, the work of the author can be said as the reflection of the author’s personality. Using this approach means people have to get as much information and data as possible about the author’s life and development hence they can understand the work of the author better (Rohrberger 8). It is believed that a piece of literary work reflects the emotion, feeling, ideas and personality of the author in reference to his/her personal life.

According to Wellek and Warren, there are several usages of biographical approach: first, it may explain great many allusions or even words in an author’s work; second, it will help us in understanding the most obvious of all strictly developmental problems in the history of literature – the growth, maturation, and possible decline of the author’s works; third, it accumulates materials for other questions of literary history such as author’s personal association with literary men, author’s travels, the landscape, and cities he lived in (Wellek and Warren 79).

In addition, the proponents of biographical approach stated that “Biographical materials provide useful facts that could put the reader in a better position to understand and appreciate the literary object” (Rohrberger 8). Therefore, biographical approach is very helpful to be applied in this study since there must be relation between author’s life, personality, and his/her work. In addition, author’s life and personality can be employed to enhance the understanding about his/her works.

2. Theory of Gothic Fiction

The term “gothic” actually can be used to express both art and architecture. Gothic as one of the popular themes in literature was first exposed by Horace Walpole in his novel The Castle of Otranto which was published in 1764 (“Gothic Literature”). Since then, gothic as a literature theme was widely explored and used.

There are some prominent features of gothic fiction. As quoted from Drabble and Stringer,

“Frightening or horrifying stories of various kinds have been told in all ages, but the literary tradition confusingly designated as ‘Gothic’ is a distinct modern development in which the characteristic theme is the stranglehold of the past upon the present, or the encroachment of the ‘dark’ ages of oppression upon the ‘enlightened’ modern era.” (“Gothic Fiction”).

When reading gothic fiction or sometimes known as dark romanticism, some typical features that can be found are:

a. Terror

Anne Radcliffe differentiates the term terror and horror. According to her, terror "expands the soul, and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life" (Radcliffe 643). In gothic fiction, readers can find two kinds of terror that are psychological or physical terror. In other words, terror is something fearful because it is surrounded by gloom and mystery.

b. Mystery

Many writers write mystery fiction by creating a case, usually crime case, that needs to be solved and a character will try to solve it. The mystery itself will be solved or even more often unsolved in the story. Although mystery

is often related to detective or crime story, there is another kind of mystery, which is supernatural mystery. Edgar Allan Poe is one of famous writers who writes mystery fiction both detective or crime stories and supernatural mystery (“Mystery (fiction)”)

c. Supernatural

According to Marriam-Webster Dictionary, supernatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe (“supernatural”). In fiction supernatural appears as supernatural power such as curse, spells and magic or belief to the life after death. In real life, however, supernatural beliefs exist in many societies around the world (“Supernatural”).

d. Ghosts

Ghost means the apparition of the dead people’s spirit. There are many stories of ghosts that can be found. Many writers from many genres present ghost in their story (“Ghost”). Ghost does not always appear as something fearful and scary, sometimes it can appear as something that brings happiness and hope. A famous story that presents ghosts is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

e. Murder

Murder is very often presented in crime or detective stories. In gothic fiction, murder corresponds to the dark side of human being (“Gothic Fiction”). Referring to Wikipedia.com, there are five circumstances of a murder. They are insanity, depression, self-defense, unintentional, and

diminished capacity (“Murder”). From those circumstances, insanity, depression, and self-defense are common presented in gothic fiction.

However, there are still some features that can be found in gothic fiction other than those mentioned above. They are haunted houses or gothic architecture, madness, and death itself. Gothic architecture reminds us to our nightmare. Madness is presented as the irrational or abnormal behavior and thoughts of character(s) in the story. Whereas death is presented as not only physical death, but also the death of beauty and the death of God are even more common themes in gothic fiction (“Distinctive Features of Dark Romanticism”).

Many critics to Edgar Allan Poe say that one of Poe’s specialties is tale about terror or in other words gothic. One of them can be seen in Daniel Hoffman’s Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe: “Where could I have read so terrifying a tale, so horrifying a predicament, so inescapable a servitude to the inexorable movement of time, but in the work of Edgar Allan Poe?” (Hoffman). Therefore, it is necessary to mention the features of gothic fiction in this chapter.

B. Critical Biography of Edgar Allan Poe

Since the approach applied in this study was biographical approach, in this section I present the life of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809. He was the second child of Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe and David Poe, Jr. He had an elder brother, William Henry Leonard Poe and a younger sister, Rosalie Poe (“Edgar Allan Poe”).

His father left the family less than a year after Edgar’s birth and his mother who was ill died on December 8, 1811. Poe was taken into the home of John Allan who became his foster mother. This family educated Poe until they moved back to Richmond. There, little Poe made a good friendship with Ebenezer Burling. At this age Poe had showed amazing ability for remembering details and creating ideas from his own imagination. He even wrote poetry on little bits of paper. He wrote almost everything in his poetry: pretty girls he met, romanticism, and even his later specialty, horror and death (Porges 2-12).

Day by day passed by, because of some economic problems related to his companies, Poe’s foster father got very busy and sensitive and he spent less time with Poe. However, Poe still had companions from Rob Stanard and Robert Mayo. One day, Rob Stanard introduced his mother to Poe and somehow little Poe loved Mrs. Stanard very much. Mrs. Stanard gave her affection to Poe, she listened to his poetry and she comforted Poe. Poe adored Mrs. Stanard very much, but later Mrs. Stanard became very ill and on April 28, 1824 she died. This fact shocked and dragged Poe in a deep sorrow. He lost his first perfect love, Mrs. Jane Stanard and it was taking a long time to make him recovered from the sorrow. He recovered from his sorrow after he re-wrote the script of famous Greek story, Helen of Troy, and he changed it into To Helen which represented his great love to Mrs. Stanard. He never knew that death, terror, and evil things would always be near to him (Porges 22-28).

The teenage Poe continued his life but his relationship with his foster father, Allan, was not getting better. One day, Allan asked him whether he wanted

to go to University of Virginia and of course Poe was happy and worried at the same time since he had to leave Elmyra, his “girlfriend” and of course his foster mother and Aunt Nancy. He promised to come back to Myra and he would marry her when he came back. At the University of Virginia, Poe began his studies in schools of ancient and modern language but life in university was not the same as his expectation. Poe described people in University as wild people; they were drinking liquor, fighting among each other, and gambling. Not surprisingly, Poe was influenced by his surroundings. He started to play and his gambling debts were increasing a lot and these made Allan mad. Allan never sent him money again since that and seemed that he did not care about Poe’s future. Being frustrated, Poe decided to move to Boston in April 1827 (Porges 37-53).

His life in Boston was not getting better, but with the rest of his money, he printed Tamerlane and Other Poems which contained 40 pages in May 1827. Having had no money, Poe enrolled himself to the US army with his fake name Edgar A. Perry and his fake age 22. He was put in a group named Battery H. First Artillery and he left Boston to Sullivan’s Island in Charleston Harbor. He was fascinated by the beauty from every detail in Sullivan’s Island and he stored them in his memory. Later, about 15 years, he used what he had observed to write his famous story, The Gold Bug. On March 1, he got message telling him that his foster mother was dying. He hurried home to Richmond but he arrived on the day after Mrs. Allan was buried. He became very sad; he lost two women he had loved, Mrs. Stanard and Mrs. Allan who always supported him. Softened by his wife’s death, Mr. Allan agreed to discharge Poe from the army. Poe moved to

Baltimore and lived there with his grandmother, his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, his cousin, Virginia, and his elder brother, Henry who was sick. There, his poems titled Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Other Poems was published by Hatch and Dunning in November. Poe went back to his home in Richmond where his foster father who was pleased by his success and his aunt lived. It was not long until he quarreled again with his father and left the house. On August 2, 1831 his brother, Henry Poe died (Porges 55-72).

Edgar lived with his grandmother, aunt, and cousin poorly. He sent his works several times to competitions or newspapers but he got no payment from that until he won one of them. On October 12, 1833 The Visiter announced the Manuscript Found in a Bottle as the winner. Edgar won the $50 prize. That was his beginning of success but in early 1834 he heard that Allan’s health was failing rapidly so he went to visit him but he was refused by Allan and he was kicked out from the house. When, John Allan finally died on March 27, Edgar did not get any cent from him. Moving back to Baltimore, Poe started to write stories for the Southern Literary Messenger and received small payments from that. However, another shocking incident happened when his grandmother, Mrs. David Poe died on July 7. It was a great sadness to the whole family including Edgar Allan Poe. Loneliness yet led Edgar to drink and use opium (Porges 73-93).

Poe’s habit of drinking could be stopped when finally he asked his aunt and Virginia moved to Richmond where he worked for The Messenger. He wrote stories and criticism which helped the popularity of the Messenger. Edgar then married Virginia. He described his cousin yet his wife with “her childlike shape,

beautiful pale skin, high forehead, and bright eyes was perfect woman” (Porges 95). Later he used Virginia for his biggest inspiration for some stories such as Berenice, Eleonora, and Ligeia. The story of Ligeia was printed in a Baltimore Magazine in 1838. The characteristics of Ligeia were like his dear Virginia. During this success period, Poe’s works such as The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), and The Gold Bug (1843) were printed (Porges 95-106).

Back before when The Gold Bug was released in 1842, Edgar noticed the serious illness of his wife, Virginia, was the same disease that had taken the life of his brother, Henry Poe. In May, 1842, Edgar left Graham’s Magazine and he then worked for Griswold and in the same year, another story of terror, The Mask of the Red Death was published. This was followed by his other stories, both about detective stories such as The Mystery of Marie Roget and terror and death stories such as The Pit and the Pendulum. For the sake of Virginia’s condition, Poe, Virginia, and his aunt moved for a while to a farmhouse where Virginia could see the river and the green of woods and fields. There, Poe wrote his later greatest poem, The Raven. It was first published on January 29, 1845 in the newspaper, The Evening Mirror. In November 1846, one of his best stories, The Cask of Amontillado was printed in Godey’s but only few months later on January 30, 1847 Virginia died at the age of 24. This was the biggest tragedy of all during Poe’s life; his heart was broken into pieces and it was the start of his decreasing period (Porges 112-128).

After the death of his beloved wife, Virginia, Poe started to drink heavily and moved from city to city. He also made relationships to several older women. However, Poe still wrote some stories during this period such as Hop-Frog. Edgar Allan Poe died on Sunday, October 7, 1849 after previously carried to Washington College Hospital on Wednesday, October 3 (Edgar Allan Poe).

C. Theoretical Framework

In this section, I summarize and synthesize the contribution of the theories mentioned in the analysis of this study. In this study, I carried out biographical approach to support my analysis since the object of the study is Edgar Allan Poe’s works titled The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado and the problem is the relation of Poe’s life and his perception of death as revealed in those works of Poe. In addition, to develop understanding about Poe’s perception of death as revealed in his three works, I used some distinctive features of gothic fiction to compare the elements of those stories; they are the death figure (ghost or the supernatural), the cause of the death, and the characters’ view of the death. After understanding his perception of death, I could do the analysis about its relation with his life.

In relating Poe’s perception of death and his life, I needed to know the life or biography of Edgar Allan Poe himself. That is why the biography of Poe is needed to be mentioned in this chapter. After all related theories mentioned above were gained, the analysis of this study could be implemented because it already had supporting theories.

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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology in this study. There are three subtitles in this chapter. They are: object of the study in which the information on the short stories is presented; approach of the study, discussion on the approaches I applied in this study; and method of the study which tells about the procedures of gathering and arranging the data used in writing this thesis.

A. Object of the Study

I took three works of Edgar Allan Poe for this literature study. Three of them are dealing with death. The first short story is The Mask of the Red Death which was first published in 1842. It tells about a dangerous disease called Red Death which attacks a country and causes the victims die. Prince Prospero who lives in a palace is not attacked by the disease. He locks the palace and after some times he decides to have a party in the palace to celebrate his being secured from the Red Death. It is a masquerade in which the people attending the party wear masks. Prince Prospero decorates the rooms with different colors: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and the last one, black. However the guests do not enter the last room colored black because it is gloomy. Everybody is happy until midnight when a mysterious guest appears in the middle of the crowds. His costume is different from the others. He wears a scary mask, a corpse’s face-like mask with spots of blood like the Red Death victims. Feeling humiliated by the

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

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, andThe Cask of Amontilladoreflect his life.

In addition, I analyzed Poe’s perception of death as revealed in his works: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe 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 character(s) 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.org/wiki/Short_story. These electronic sources were used to enrich the information about Edgar Allan Poe and to support the writer’s

ideas. The next step was conducting critical analysis using biographical approach. Hence, as the last step I made conclusion and suggestion for teaching implementation.

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

This section is devoted to answer the problems of the research. As stated before, the problems of this research are first, Poe’s perception of death as revealed in his three stories The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado and second, how his perception of death as revealed in his stories reflects his life.

There are two parts of this section. First, Edgar Allan Poe’s perception of death as revealed in The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. This part discusses Poe’s perception of death which I revealed from his three stories. Second, how Poe’s perception of death as revealed in The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado reflects his life, which exemplifies the relation between Poe’s perception of death and his life.

A. Edgar Allan Poe’s Perception of Death as Revealed in The Mask of the

Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado

Edgar Allan Poe is a well known author who often uses death as the theme of his tales and poem. As quoted from American Literature The Makers and the Making by Cleanth Brooks et.al, “Poe is not interested in anything that is alive. Everything in Poe is dead: the houses, the rooms, the furniture…” (361). This study discusses Edgar Allan Poe’s perception of death by comparing the death figure (ghost or the supernatural), the cause of death, and the characters’

view of death in three of his stories The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado.

1. Death Figure

In The Mask of the Red Death, Poe creates a horrible disease called the “red death” which attacks a country for a long time as the death figure. As quoted from the story, “No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal -- the redness and the horror of blood.” (The Mask of the Red Death).

He describes that no one can run or hide from the horrible power of death even Prince Prospero who thinks that he can escape from it. Further in the story, Poe shows another death figure, the mysterious figure appearing in the middle of the party. This figure represents the Red Death plague itself. Poe describes the figure as tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The figure wears a scary mask. Unlike any other whom wears colorful mask, this mysterious figure wears black robe and scary mask with blood-like spots over his body. Of course, this figure creates horror, terror and fear among the guests and Prince Prospero himself (The Mask of the Red Death).

The death figure also appears in the story of Ligeia. In this story, the death figure is represented by the dead body of the narrator’s wives, Lady Ligeia and Rowena. When the narrator sits next to the dead body of Rowena, he sees that it seems Rowena revives from death. She moves and walks, but the figure is not

like Rowena but Ligeia with her black hair as raven. She revives from death and stands up in the bridal room:

“I stirred not--but gazed upon the apparition. There was a mad disorder in my thoughts-a tumult unappeasable. Could it, indeed be the living Rowena who confronted me? Could it indeed be Rowena at all--the fair-haired, the blue-eyed Lady Rowena of Trevanion of Tremaine? Why, why should I doubt it? The bandage lay heavily about the mouth—but then might it not be the mouth of the breathing Lady of Tremaine? And the cheeks—there were the roses as in her noon of life—yes, these might indeed be the fair cheeks of the living Lady of Tremaine. … One bound and I had reached her feet! Shrinking from my touch, she let fall from her head the gastly cerements which had confined it; and three streamed forth, into the rushing atmosphere of the chamber, huge masses of long and disheveled hair; it was blacker than the wings of the midnight! And now slowly opened the eyes of the figure which stood before me. “Here then, at least,” I shrieked aloud, “can I never—can I never be mistaken—these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes—of my lost love—of the lady—of the LADY LIGEIA!” (Ligeia).

The death figure in this story comes to life and haunts the narrator by her apparition.

In the third short story, The Cask of Amontillado, there is no significant or obvious death figure as in The Mask of the Red Death and Ligeia. The death figure in this story is implicitly stated at the end of the story when it comes to the readers to know that the sequences of revenge by the Montressor are done fifty years before he tells the story:

“My heart grew sick -- on account of the dampness of the catacombs. I hastened to make an end of my labour. I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I rejected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them”. (The Cask of Amontillado).

This means that the chained body of Fortunato remains exactly the same in the same wall as it is since nobody comes to the vault afterwards. The body of

Fortunato must have been rotten and turns into skeleton of a human death body. Another death figure presented in the story is the scattered skeletons in the vault.

It can be seen that the death figures presented in those three short stories are used to create an atmosphere of terror and horror. Poe knows very well how to make gothic tales using the power of death itself as one of the characteristics of gothic fiction. Here, it is quite clear that, in those three stories, Poe perceives death as something fearful with great terror to the characters of the stories. His perception of death is shown by the presence of death figures in the short stories. He employs the death figures to shape his perception of death.

2. The Cause of Death

In the story of The Mask of the Red Death, the death of the characters, in this case Prince Prospero and his guests, is caused by the apparition of the mysterious figure itself. When the figure appears in the party, Prince Prospero and his guests are shocked but nobody dares enough to catch the figure. Prince Prospero tries to catch and to unmask the figure. When finally cornered in the last chamber and Prince Prospero tries to grasp the figure, he finds nobody inside the cloaks but ironically he and the whole companion die in sudden because as mentioned before, the mysterious figure represents the Red Death plague (The Masque of the Red Death).

From this story Poe shows to the readers that death can happen because of a terrible and dangerous disease in this case, the Red Death plague although it seems that there is a supernatural power that causes the death of the characters.

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

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.

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

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.

B. How Poe’s Perception of Death as Revealed in The Mask of the Red

Death, Ligeia, andThe 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

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

from Poe’s lost of Mrs. Stannard when he was young, as at that time he adored Mrs. Stannard so much and felt terribly sorrowful when she died. It was when he was the age of 15, as taken from Edgar Allan Poe by Porges, he felt the first purely first love of his soul to Mrs. Stanard, one of his friends’ mother. When finally Mrs. Stanard died on April 28, 1824, young Poe was drowning to deep sorrow. He lost his closest friend who gave him encouragement he needed badly (25-26). The narrator’s fear to his beloved’s death in Poe’s real life can reflect his fear to the death of people he loves. Since he had lost Mrs. Stannard, Mrs. Allan and other people he loved, he was afraid of losing anybody else, especially at that moment his lovely wife, Virginia. So, in Ligeia, Poe created the story that somehow the great love of the narrator revives the dead Ligeia through the body of Rowena. As quoted from sparknotes.com:

“The loving memory of a grieving husband revives a dead wife. “Ligeia” breaks down the barrier between life and death, but not just to scare the reader. Instead, the memory of the dead shows the power of love to resist even the permanence of death” (“Ligeia”).

Due to the bad health of Virginia, Poe, Virginia, and his aunt moved to a farmhouse owned by Patrick Brennan (Porges123). It does not mean that Poe stopped writing there. With his brilliant mind concerning death, Poe created another story about death, this time the major theme was about revenge titled The Cask of Amontillado.

The theme of the story, revenge, can be drawn from Poe’s intention to take revenge to his foster father, Mr. John Allan although at the time he wrote this story, Mr. John Allan had already passed away. It is supported by Silverman as

re-quoted from Martha Womack’s essay Edgar Allan Poe’s: The Cask of Amontillado:

“Montresor tries to convince the reader that his intentions are honorable in an effort to uphold his family motto. "Nemo me impune lacessit" is also the national motto of Scotland. Kenneth Silverman, in his book Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance, makes reference to the fact that it is not an accident or similarity that Poe chooses this particular motto. It is one that would remind Poe of another Scotsman, John Allan, his foster father. Allan, "much resembled Fortunato in being a man 'rich, respected, admired, beloved,' interested in wines, and a member of the Masons." Silverman continues by saying, that even the Allan name can be seen as an anagram in Amontillado (Silverman 317).

The relation between Poe and his foster father was never been good. During the sad period when Poe did not have anything which forced him to ask money to his foster father until the last period of Mr. John Allan’s life, they had bad relationship. When Mr. John Allan’s health was failing gradually, Poe decided to make a visit to him. However, Mr. John Allan kicked him out from the house and asked him never to go back to the house. Even when he died, Poe did not get anything from his foster father (Porges 83-84). This led to Poe’s intention to take “revenge” in this case by proofing to his foster father that he was able to reach success through his ability of writing, the ability which was never been recognized by his foster father (62).

In 1846, before he wrote The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar worked to write criticisms for Godey’s Lady’s Book magazine and very often his criticisms created protests and anger from the author. One of the protests created quarrel between Poe and the author, as quoted from an analysis on The Cask of Amontillado by Sucur:

Further inspiration for the tale may have come from “a bitter quarrel” in 1846 that developed between Poe and “the cohorts of the vengeful Mrs. Ellet led by Thomas Dunn English and Hiram Fuller”, with “The Cask of Amontillado” being “the working out of [Poe’s] immediate emotions” (Sucur).

Hence, from those inspirations above and the story he heard when he was in the Army; he wrote the story of The Cask of Amontillado while he accompanied Virginia during her last moments.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This last chapter consists of two parts. The first part is the conclusions of the discussions of Edgar Allan Poe’s perception of death as seen in his short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. The second part is suggestions for future research and for the implementation of these literary works in English language teaching.

A. Conclusions

As one of many authors who often writes stories about death, Edgar Allan Poe must have his own perception about death itself. This fact has drawn my attention to do analysis and this is the time to answer the formulated problems above. As mentioned previously, I tried to figure out Poe’s perception on death as revealed in his three short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado.

The way to reveal Poe’s perception in those stories is by comparing three different elements which are the death figure, the cause of death, and the characters’ view of death in Poe’s different short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. It can be seen in the analysis that in all those stories Poe uses death as reflected in three elements: the death figure, the cause of death, and the characters’ view of death as means to trigger the terror and suspense and to create horrifying and gloomy atmosphere in the stories.

The death figures that appear in those stories are the Red Death plague and the masked figure in The Mask of the Red Death, the dead body of Ligeia and Rowena in Ligeia, and Fortunato’s corpse in the vault in The Cask of Amontillado. The second element discussed is the cause of the death. In The Mask of the Red Death, the death of Prince Prospero and his guests is caused by the Red Death plague and somehow we can see that there is a supernatural power from the mysterious masked figure that makes them die in sudden. In Ligeia, death is caused by two different things. The first one is the death of Lady Ligeia which is caused by a mysterious disease and the second one is Lady Rowena’s death which is caused by the poison given by the narrator who is her husband himself, or in other words, she dies because of murder. The same thing happens in The Cask of Amontillado. Montressor wants to take revenge to Fortunato. He chains Fortunato on the wall and seals the vault. He leaves Fortunato in the vault until he finally dies. Hence, it can be seen that the cause of death in The Cask of Amontillado is murder.

Considering those facts above, it can be concluded that Edgar Allan Poe, through his three short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado perceives death as something that creates terror and sadness, something fearful, horrifying, not the peaceful one. He employs the presence of death figures, various causes of death, and characters’ view of death to present his perception of death in his stories. Through his stories, Poe works hard at structuring his tales of aristocratic madman, self-tormented murderers, and other

deviant types. He also combines such events and discusses in such a tone to produce the greatest possible horrifying effects on the readers (Baym 1356-1357).

It becomes the nature of Edgar Allan Poe to create tales of terror that represent his perception of death. The way Poe perceives death is affected by his real life. In the discussion part, it is clearly seen that several incidents in his life triggered him to create his three stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. Those incidents affect the way he perceives death and indirectly affect his stories.

It can be seen in The Mask of the Red Death which is influenced by Virginia’s sickness and the way Poe responds to that situation. Referring to the biography of Edgar Allan Poe, the fact that Virginia got tuberculosis at that time really saddened Poe. He was so terrified and tremendously afraid of losing his beloved wife. Moreover, realizing the truth that tuberculosis was a deathly disease with terrible symptoms at that time; the disease that killed some members of his family previously, The Mask of the Red Death is very much influenced from this incident of his life.

Whereas in Ligeia, Poe describes the beauty of Ligeia as her beloved wife, Virginia, and he refers to Mrs. Stannard’s death in creating the death of Ligeia. Poe was so desperate and felt terribly sorrowful to the death of Mrs. Stannard. He recalls this sad memory as his inspiration to create the atmosphere due to the death of Ligeia. The male character in this story is deluded by the beauty of Ligeia and he is intended to revive Ligeia through his second wife’s body, Rowena. This

fact describes Poe feeling when he lost Mr. Stannard and his fear of losing Virginia.

The last story, The Cask of Amontillado, is about revenge and murder. Self-tormented Montressor makes revenge to Fortunato by chaining him on the wall and sealing him in the vault. The theme revenge is inspired and triggered by his personal intention in taking a revenge to his foster father and the quarrel due to a protest to his criticism. He combines the theme, revenge, with the story he heard with the same theme when he was still joining the army.

In conclusion, it is obvious that the nature of death in Edgar Allan Poe’s stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado is affected by his own perception about death. He perceives death as something that creates terror and sadness, something fearful, horrifying, not the peaceful one. This perception is illustrated in those stories. It is also obvious that his perception of death is influenced by incidents and more often tragedy in his real life. He happened to see and experience the coming of death to the people he loved. He happened to feel deep sorrow, great pain, and anger during his life. However, these experiences enrich his creation in this case as shown in his short stories The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado.

B. Suggestions

This part is divided into two sub-sections. The first part is suggestion for future research on Edgar Allan Poe and his short stories The Mask of the Red

Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. The second part is suggestion of using literature in English Language Teaching.

1. Suggestion for Future Research

I realize that the analysis I make in this study is not perfect yet. It is impossible for me to discuss all about Edgar Allan Poe and his three works: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. Hence, there are still some topics that will be interesting to be analyzed further.

For anyone who intends to write an analysis about Edgar Allan Poe and his three works, I suggest analyzing the three short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado using formalism approach. I believe that the readers will have deeper feeling to the works of Edgar Allan Poe and gothic fiction in general if we have deep understanding about the texts of the stories themsleves. By using the features in the stories such as grammar, syntax, and tropes one can conduct critical analysis to the stories in order to grasp understanding towards them.

Another suggestion for those intending to analyze Edgar Allan Poe and his three works: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado, I suggest analyzing using the psychological approach. As quoted from Rohrberger that, psychological approach involves various theories of psychology to explain the characters’ personality in a story. The proponent of this approach uses the theory of human psychology as the references to analyze the characters in the story. The proponent of this approach also insists that each

character’s behaviour could be referred to the psychology of human being. Hence through this approach the character’s thought and behaviour can be analyzed more profoundly (13-14).

2. Suggestion for English Language Teaching

This part discusses the implementation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado as the material in language teaching. I will apply them in speaking for the fields of implementation.

Reading is more often for pleasure. People read magazine, newspaper, and literary works such as novel and short stories in their spare time for pleasure. I believe that literary works can be used to teach English especially in teaching English as foreign language. McKay states that, “Literature will increase all language skills because literature will extend linguistic knowledge by giving evidence of extensive and subtle vocabulary usage, and complex and exact syntax” (191). Moreover, besides improving linguistic knowledge, literature can improve understanding about culture and life as according to Lazar, literature can provide students with an access to the culture of the people whose language is being studied (16). Hence, it is obvious that literature is useful in language learning.

However, there are several criteria in choosing appropriate literary text to language teaching. Nutall suggests there are three criteria, they are: suitability, exploitability, and readability. Suitability means the text is suitable for the

students, so that it stimulates personal involvement of the students. While exploitability means the text should facilitate the students to learn language. Last criterion is readability which means the text is suitable with the level of difficulty of the students (2). Referring to Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, andThe Cask of Amontillado, it can be seen that those stories are long enough especially Ligeia, moreover the language used by Edgar Allan Poe is quite complex with various kinds of diction. Therefore, Edgar Allan Poe short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado are suitable for students in the advanced level who already master sufficient vocabulary and have proficiency to read the stories.

a. The Implementation in Teaching Reading

Reading is a process held by the reader to get the message, which is revealed by the writer through written language or words. If one cannot fulfill this, both the explicit and implicit will not be either grasped or comprehended, and the reading process itself is not done well (Widowson 23). Reading is one of the most important skills in language learning.

In teaching reading, Paulston and Bruder offer two kinds of reading. They are intensive and extensive reading. Intensive reading means “the students’ attention is focused through instruction which enables him or her to decode the message” whereas extensive reading means “reading in the native tongue; the students read at his own level and pace, directly for meaning” (162). Hence, a

teacher should not force his/her interpretation about the literary text but he/she should let the students to give their own opinion and interpretation about the text.

The next is steps how the teacher can implement the literary text which is Edgar Allan Poe’s short story: The Cask of Amontillado in teaching learning process to advanced level students.

1) The teacher divides the story into three parts.

2) The teacher distributes the excerpts a week before. Students read the excerpt at home.

3) The teacher gives question to draw students’ attention by brainstorming the word “death”.

4) The teacher divides the students into groups (each group consists of three students).

5) The students figure out the main idea of the excerpt. 6) The students arrange the excerpts into logical short story.

7) The students answer the questions about detail information of the story. 8) The teacher chairs a discussion on the answers of the questions.

9) The students make a summary on the short story with their own words. 10)The teacher makes conclusion and closes the lesson.

b. The Implementation in Teaching Speaking

In learning language, people usually have their own aim. One general aim in learning language is the communicative competence. Paulston and Bruder say that, “… generally communicative is taken to be the objectives of language

teaching: the production of speakers competent to communicate in the target language” (55-56).

In teaching speaking, the teacher should create such an atmosphere in which the students feel free to express and share their ideas. Interesting material can be used to make students participate in the discussion. Short story is one interesting material if it is used and chosen appropriately. In implementing Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado to teach speaking, I suggest two kinds of activities: discussion and presentation. These activities are able to encourage the students to speak up and share their ideas and opinion both in the group and in front of public. The following is procedures that I suggest to conduct the activity:

1) The teacher selects the excerpts from Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado.

2) The teacher divides the excerpts a week before the meeting. Students read the excerpt at home.

3) The teacher conducts warming up activity by brainstorming the word “death”. 4) The teacher divides the class into three groups.

5) The teacher asks the students to discuss how death is presented/happened in the excerpt of the short story. Students can refer to some points, e.g. the cause of the death, the character’s view towards the death.

6) The students share their opinion, argument, and analysis within the group. 7) The teacher asks every group to present their result of the discussion in front

8) The students make a reflection on today’s lesson regarding their improvement, difficulty, experience, and feeling.

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The excerpt of Ligeia

…

"O God!" half shrieked Ligeia, leaping to her feet and extending her arms aloft with a spasmodic movement, as I made an end of these lines -- "O God! O Divine Father! -- shall these things be undeviatingly so? -- shall this Conqueror be not once conquered? Are we not part and parcel in Thee? Who -- who knoweth the mysteries of the will with its vigor? Man doth not yield him to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will."

And now, as if exhausted with emotion, she suffered her white arms to fall, and returned solemnly to her bed of death. And as she breathed her last sighs, there came mingled with them a low murmur from her lips. I bent to them my ear and distinguished, again, the concluding words of the passage in Glanvill -- "Man doth not yield him to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will."

She died; -- and I, crushed into the very dust with sorrow, could no longer endure the lonely desolation of my dwelling in the dim and decaying city by the Rhine. I had no lack of what the world calls wealth. Ligeia had brought me far more, very far more than ordinarily falls to the lot of mortals.

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Appendix 3

Summary of The Mask of the Red Death

A dangerous disease named Red Death attacks the whole country. People who are infected with this disease feel terrible pain and then die; the symptoms of Red Death are horrifying such as blood sweating and sharp pain. Although many people throughout the country are infected with the plague, Prince Prospero and some of his noble friends do not get infected. He feels happy and proud because of this. He seals his abbey and invites his friends to a masquerade party. He decorates the rooms with different colours: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black.

Everybody is happy. They enjoy the party. The guests are scattered in all rooms except the last one. They feel uncomfortable because the black coloured room is dark and gloomy. There is a gigantic clock in the last room that clangs every hour. In the middle of the night, a mysterious figure appears in the party. When Prince Prospero notices his mysterious guest, he feels insulted and mad. The mysterious figure wears black robe with blood like spots scattered on it. The figure also wears a skull shaped mask which represents the victims of the Red Death.

Prince Prospero asks his guests to catch and unmask the mysterious figure but nobody dares. He then decides to catch the figure by himself. The masked figure runs through the rooms and finally cornered in the black painted room. Fiercely, Prince Prospero unmasks the figure but he finds nobody inside the cloaks. The figure represents the Red Death. Prince Prospero dies in sudden and so does his companion. The Red Death has entered the abbey and infects everyone even Prince Prospero himself.

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Summary of The Cask of Amontillado

Fortunato, a man who loves wine (amontillado), becomes the target of revenge by Montressor. Montressor somehow feels insulted because Fortunato has insulted his honor. He arranges a plot to trap Fortunato. He wants to take revenge to Fortunato and kills him.

In the festival season, Fortunato who wears a colorful clown like outfit with bells is asked by Montressor to taste his amontillado kept in the vault. Attracted by the offer, Fortunato follows Montressor to the vault. The vault is so damp and lack of fresh air. Fortunato starts to cough and feels that he cannot breathe. However, he ignores it and continues to follow Montressor to the amontillado.

Fortunato is already so weak when they finally find the amontillado, but he is deluded by the amontillado. Realizing the good situation, Montressor starts doing his plan. He seals the vault and Fortunato inside it. It is too late for Fortunato to realize the bad intention of Montressor. He is left in the vault with his weak and weaker body.

More than 50 years afterwards, Montressor reveals the story. He says that the body of Fortunato is still there since nobody comes to the vault again.

Summary of Ligeia

The male character in the story describes the beauty of his first wife, Ligeia. He adores and loves Ligeia so much. He describes his wife has beautiful black hair, sharp and lovely black eyes, and fair skin. The beauty of Ligeia hypnotizes the male character.

However, everything does not happen as the male character wants. Ligeia starts to get mysterious illness. The male character feels so sad of this. The body of Ligeia becomes weaker and weaker. The male character feels terribly afraid of losing Ligeia. When finally Lady Ligeia dies, he is drowning into a deep sorrow and loneliness. He starts to use opium and he moves to other city. There, he meets Rowena with blonde hair and blue eyes. He gets married with Rowena. However, he realizes that Rowena doesn’t really love him and he also does not really love Rowena. The memory of Ligeia is often haunting him.

He starts to do his bad intention to revive Ligeia. He gives poison to Rowena gradually. It makes Rowena sick and finally dies. He waits beside Rowena in the apartment room. He feels like he sees Rowena comes back to life. When he observes the figure appears in the apartment room, he realizes that it is not Rowena who revives from death but it is Lady Ligeia.

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ABSTRACT

Pradana, Heindra. (2009). Poe’s Perception of Death as Revealed in His Short Stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Death is one of many phenomena that must be faced by every single person in this world. People perceive and face death differently from one to another. This has inspired me to conduct this study. This study discusses Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado which present and reveal death.

There are two issues that are discussed in this thesis. They are (1) what is Poe’s perception of death as revealed in The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado? and (2) how does Poe’s perception of death as revealed in The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado reflect Poe’s life?

The method employed in this study is library research. I obtained the data from the three short stories themselves as the primary source. Whereas the secondary sources which are used to answer the issues above are the references from books and electronic articles about literary works and the life of Edgar Allan Poe which are supportive and relevant to this study. The approach I used to analyze the issues is biographical approach since this study refers to the life of Edgar Allan Poe.

The conclusion of the analysis is that in the three short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe perceives death as something fearful, terrible and horrifying, and not the calm and peaceful one. It can be seen in the analysis by comparing the death figure, the cause of death, and the characters’ view of death in those three short stories.

Edgar Allan Poe’s perception of death as seen in his short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado is influenced by his real life. During his life, he experienced seeing and facing death of the persons he loved and most of them were so tragic and left great sadness to him. Moreover, his life is rarely happy. He often quarreled with his foster father that led to his intention to take a revenge to his foster father. Those experiences of life are reflected in the work of Edgar Allan Poe as his perception of death itself.

Besides providing the suggestion for possible future researches on Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado, this thesis also proposes material to teach English by using excerpts of the stories in teaching Intensive Reading II and Public Speaking I.

xi ABSTRAK

Pradana, Heindra. (2009). Poe’s Perception of Death as Revealed in His Short Stories: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Kematian adalah salah satu dari banyak fenomena yang harus dihadapi oleh setiap orang di dunia ini. Orang-orang melihat dan menghadapi kematian dengan cara yang berbeda satu dengan yang lain. Hal ini telah menginsiprasi saya dalam melakukan penelitian ini. Penelitian ini mendiskusikan tentang cerita pendek Edgar Allan Poe: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado yang menyuguhkan dan mengungkapkan kematian.

Ada dua isu yang akan didiskusikan dalam skripsi ini, yaitu (1) apa persepsi Poe tentang kematian sebagaimana terlihat di The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado dan (2) bagaimana persepsi Poe tentang kematian sebagaimana terlihat di The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado menggambarkan kehidupan Poe.

Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah studi pustaka. Saya mengumpulkan data dari tiga cerita pendek tersebut sebagi sumber utama. Sedangkan sumber tambahan yang digunakan untuk menjawab isu di atas adalah referensi dari buku-buku dan artikel elektronik tentang karya sastra dan kehidupan Edgar Allan Poe yang mendukung dan sesuai dengan penelitian ini. Pendekatan yang saya gunkan untuk menganalisa isu-isu tersebut adalah pendekatan biografi karena penelitian ini berkenaan dengan kehidupan Edgar Allan Poe.

Kesimpulan dari analisa adalah bahwa di dalam tiga cerita pendek: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe melihat kematian sebagai sesuatu yang menakutkan, mengerikan, dan bukan yang tenang dan damai. Hal ini dapat dilihat di dalam analisa dengan membandingkan sosok kematian, penyebab kematian, dan pandangan karakter terhadap kematian dalam tiga cerita pendek tersebut.

Persepsi Edgar Allan Poe tentang kematian sebagaimana terlihat di cerita pendek karyanya: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado dipengaruhi oleh kehidupan nyatanya. Selama hidupnya, Poe mengalami, melihat, dan menghadapi kematian dari orang-orang yang dicintainya. Terlebih lagi, hidupnya sangat jarang sekali bahagia, dia sering bertengkar dengan ayah angkatnya dan berujung pada keinginannya untuk membalas dendam. Pengalaman-pengalaman tersebut direfleksikan dalam karyanya sebagai persepsinya tentang kematian itu sendiri.

Selain menyediakan saran untuk penelitian-penelitian selanjutnya tentang cerita pendek Edgar Allan Poe: The Mask of the Red Death, Ligeia, and The Cask of Amontillado, skripsi ini juga menawarkan materi pengajaran Bahasa Inggris dengan menggunakan petikan dari cerita pendek di atas untuk Intensive Reading II dan Public Speaking I .