1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

A great number of scholars provide their interpretation of the beauty of death in Poe#8217;s major creations, including the theme of death, literary theory of novel creation and characters, background and so on. Some scholars considered the creation of female characters in his stories demonstrates the shadow of women in his real life. Qin Lijuan thought Berenice is another exemplification of his love for his wife and mother. They probably did not die, only in some pathological sleepy or just showing a suspended state, but they are not really dead. (87) She also stated that the death of his mother, step-mother and his wife fostered Allan Poe a paranoid love for the death of a beautiful woman. Furthermore, Poe refused to believe that death is the end of life, however, he insisted that the dead can communicate with people alive on a certain occasion. The female characters in his novels are always dying or already dead. (88) Ji Kaixuan noted that Poe thought the beauty is conceived in death. Only through the death of beauty, can we get eternal beauty and the beauty of real life. (3) He emphasized ”And in order to perfectly illustrate the scared beauty, Poe perceives beauty through the destruction of beauty. Therefore, everything beautiful is doomed to death in his short stories. And the death of a beautiful woman is a recurring theme in his works; however, Poe endows the death of beauties with more profound aesthetic implications” (3). Li Xin said ”Undoubtedly, death is the eternal theme in Edgar Allan Poe#8217;s works. Struggling with fate and death all his life made Poe find the way into and discover the realm of death” (2). Some scholars focus on Poe#8217;s distinctive creation theory. Wang Bo and Wang Mo pointed that the theory ”Unity of Effect” is the core of Poe#8217;s theories, which, in order to shock the readers, emphasizes on the predesigned plot serving for the preplanned effect. According to Allan Poe#8217;s main works, the theory ”Unity of Effect” conveys the true meaning of death, which is bizarre, desolate, horrible and creepy. (131) And some scholars discussed the aesthetic perspectives exhibited in Poe#8217;s tales. Zou Huiming found the elaboration of the beauty and a large number of the descriptions of death in Poe#8217;s work. He disclosed its purpose as a way to get the liberation and sublimation of the soul through pursuing the sad atmosphere of death, which is the embodiment of the pursuit and fantasy of ”beauty” in Allan Poe#8217;s frustrated life. (60) Wang Wei noted that Poe pursues extreme beauty all his life and he regards death as its best embodiment. Poe#8217;s understanding of death sees through life and death, which shows a philosopher#8217;s thinking. Death brings people not only horror and terror but also a kind of heart-shaking and immortal beauty which is beyond time and space.(4) Zhao Xiao and Zhang Fangfang said that in the view of Poe, death means the disappearance of the body, and it produced a ”higher spiritual thing”, that is, the spirit of freedom, is ”new”, and is ”beyond”. From the description of the desolate and horrible death, and the contempt of the cold reality world, you can see the vision and hot pursuit of the beautiful life of Allan Poe. His work is full of despair, indifference, misery and horror, implying his inner desire beyond life, which is the true meaning of the death theme of Allan Poe. (17)

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

In order to understand the two novels, I borrowed some books from the school library. First, I read the Chinese version of the two novels. In this way, I have used a shorter time to understand the main content of the novel. Then I inquired some information about the author, his writing experience, and two novels writing background online. It helps me to have well-informed understanding of the author and his works. Then I read the English version of the two novels, it help me know more details about novels. During the reading process, I also do some notes. Reading books, querying information and taking notes are the main methods of this study. The thesis will fall into five parts. The first will primarily provide the background information, including a general introduction of Edgar Allan Poe, the writing background, and the main content of the novels. The second part is literature review. I will list some other scholar#8217;s views about Poe#8217;s works. The third chapter is elaborating the theme of death aesthetics in Berenice and The Fall of the House of Usher, and his distinctive creation theory. The fourth part combined with plot of Poe#8217;s two short stories will analysis the theme of death aesthetics. The last part is the conclusion of the whole paper. This part will stress the main idea of the paper, mainly generalizing Poe#8217;s achievements and influence.