short stories. Different from previous death discussed above, most 
victims of death caused by disease are female, for example, female 
characters in The Oval Portrait, Berenice, Morella and The Fall of 
the House of Usher all die at early ages, which are not simple 
embodiment of uncertain destiny or to make people lament through 
destruction of beauties. Death caused by disease is of particular 
significance if roles played by males are considered. 
Allen Poe’s love and worship for females have made females in 
his works beautiful and charming. Death caused by disease is widely 
different from murder and suicide as disease brings physical damages 
and withering of appearance gradually. At a later stage, the 
characteristics of beauty held by women are stripped, and the time 
beauty dies away is exactly the time death falls. Allen Poe reveals 
that loss of love from dominant position is fatal and deprivation of 
beauty equals deprivation of life. 
3. Causes of Allen Poe’s Thanatopsis
The formation of Allen Poe’s thanatopsis is influenced by 
many factors which include both external and internal factors. For 
example, social historical background, cultural perspective, 
knowledge structure, hobbies and interests and life experiences all 
influence his thanatopsis to varying degrees. This chapter shall 
discuss causes of his complicated and changing thanatopsis from 
three main aspects. 
3.1 Cultural Background 
Allen Poe enters academic circles as a literary critic. At that 
time, Washington Irving and Fenimore Cooper enjoyed a high 
reputation, but Allen Poe held a different idea. Most contemporary 
writers, including Irving, had been criticized by Allen Poe. He 
worshiped English literature and believed American excellent works 
were far behind English works. These strident remarks in fact 
revealed his worry for American literature and wish for an equal 
position of American literature as English literature. There’re 
profound origins for his worship for English literature. 
First, he had a long history with UK. When he was 18 years old, 
he had moved with his adoptive father John Poe to England and then 
settled down in London. He had lived in England for five years, 
during which foreign life had impressed him deeply. The novel 
William Wilson is set against a lord’s house which is used as a school, 
and the background information “My earliest recollections of a 
school-life, are connected with a large, rambling, Elizabethan house, 
in a misty-looking village of England, where were a vast number of 
gigantic and gnarled trees, and where all the houses were excessively 
ancient.” shows that Allen Poe remembered life then and his worship 
for English literature began at that time. He had special love for 
works of English writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his romantic 
theories spreading to the 19th century. When he returned to America, 
he not only reads lots of English writers’ works, but also concludes 
his own unique explanation through hard work and divided spiritual 
world of Samuel Taylor Coleridge into three categories. 
Besides, as a magazine editor, he wished to have the best 
magazine in America, so he drew upon English magazine. He is 
particularly fond of Fraser's Magazine and Blackwood's Edinburgh 
Magazine, and the later magazine is popular on both sides of the 
Atlantic for its issue of appalling articles, of which Allen Poe had 
mentioned many times in his works. Allen Poe’s first novel 
Metzengerstein is no different from popular gothic novels that time, 
but later he had developed his own styles while inheriting traditional 
gothic novel’s expression of death. His unique style is greatly related 
to his accumulation of knowledge and interests. 
3.2. Knowledge and Interests 
While studying in University of Virginia, Allen Poe had read 
lots of literal works and some books on American history. When he 
studied at West Point, he received military management and learned 
scientific knowledge on algebra, geometry, physics and chemistry as 
the academy attached high importance to education of military theory 
and scientific knowledge, paid less attention to literature and even 
forbade students to keep books of novels and poems. It’s the study 
then that made him interested in science. Allen Poe’s sensitivity had 
helped him easily capture slight changes of human’s mentality, and 
the accumulation of scientific knowledge and cultivation of scientific 
habits had made him show yearn for science and sense, which is of 
particular use even in works with death theme. At the same time, he’s 
a reader with extensive hobbies; besides works of literature and 
philosophy, he’s also interested in science and cryptology and uses 
these knowledge to write whodunits; what’s more, he also learns 
some popular pseudoscience, hypnotism and some other knowledge 
aimed at exploring instincts. He finds that human’s sense is the most 
active and their emotion is the least repressed regarding life and death. 
Therefore, there’re lots of descriptions about mental disorder, 
telepathy and some other abnormal or special thoughts, by doing so 
Allen Poe tries to show that glimmer of human’s inner soul will be 
doubled when they face death. 
3.3. Personal Experiences 
Allen Poe, by extraordinary imagination, has described death in 
great details for us as he has experienced much death in his life. Allen 
Poe was born in Boston in 1819. His father died in 1810, and the next 
year his mother Elizabeth Poe died of tuberculosis. When he was 
three years old, he was adopted by a tobacco supplier John Allen who 
was from Richmond. His adoptive mother passed away in 1829 and 
he left home for Baltimore as he broke up with his adoptive father. In 
Baltimore, he lived with his aunt Maria Ctemm and his sister Virginia 
and his brother Henry Poe. However, Henry died of intemperance 
and tuberculosis in August. Allen Poe adored Henry as Henry had 
rich experiences: he had been a sailor and written poems in 
newspapers. Therefore, his death influenced Allen Poe greatly. 
Allen Poe married Virginia in 1836. His wife and aunt had 
given him great comfort, and they lived a peaceful and happy life 
even though they’re poor. However, good times don’t last long. In 
1842, Virginia’s blood vessels burst when she was singing. Tough her 
life was saved, she had never been as healthy as before and her 
disease repeated constantly, which resulted in Allen Poe’s fluctuation 
between desperation and hope. Then he began intemperance. He was 
found to be insensible on the street of Baltimore on 3, October, 1849, 
and passed away in the hospital three days later. Then he was buried 
carelessly in Westminster Abbey. In over forty years, Edgar Ellen Poe 
had been from Richmond to London, and then back to Richmond. He 
had described death millions of times in his stories. He had to face 
death of so many people, Elizabeth, Dave Poe, Fanny Allen, Henry 
Poe and Virginia, and eventually his own death. In his novel, there’re 
reverence toward death, humorous banter, courage facing death and 
efforts to go beyond death. In fact, he had recorded all his painful and 
happy moments into the story and described those common feelings 
of human beings subtly. 
4. Conclusion 
Leading characters in Allen Poe’s works had a soul-striking 
opposition toward death. In his stories, time of stories and 
background was diluted on purpose, so he can have profound analysis 
of soul. To make the impact more intense, Allen Poe had added death 
in the story. For those who had deviated from correct course, death 
will be their ending even though they’re more sensible than ordinary 
people and easier to loose self-control. Allen Poe had showed 
understanding and sympathy for them, but ethics principles will 
never vanish, so once they go against ethics and make unforgivab