| Many of Edgar Allan Poe’s short tales are strange and horrible, especially those of the living inhumation ones. Through his living inhumation stories, Poe was able to touch the reader’s most sensitive nerves with the horror caused by the narrow atmosphere of living inhumation.Poe’s intention of his highly embellished living inhumation stories is to explore the critical state of death which was deeply rooted in his mind. Pushing his protagonists to the edge of death—neither do they belong to the living nor do they belong to the dead, Poe wanted to discuss what people may go through psychologically under such circumstance and how they should suit themselves when facing death. Through analysis, I think that the protagonists in Poe’s living inhumation stories are all arranged with causes of being buried alive; they all went through miserable struggles against the living inhumation fate; and finally they obtained physical or spiritual rebirth after it. So this thesis analyzes these processes based on three of Poe’s tales: “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Premature Burial” and “The Cask of Amontillado”.The first chapter analyzes causes of living inhumation. It mainly includes the burying living space, the medical misjudgment of disease, the revenge and punishment. Out of different reasons, the characters in these tales are buried alive which is their inescapable fate arranged by Poe.The second chapter discusses the struggles against living inhumation. By exaggerating the struggles to the reader, Poe wanted to arouse people’s rational thinking about death: what have we buried in the struggle against inhumation? Is it the self, the fear or the desire that we have buried?The third chapter explores the transcendence and rebirth. After experiencing living inhumation, the characters break through themselves and get physical or spiritual renewal in different ways. This is exactly what Poe wanted to convey through his living inhumation tales. |
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