The Cask Of Amontillado Literary Analysis

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The Cask of Amontillado is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, one of my personal favourite writers. Published in 1846, it follows a mans quest for revenge after one of his peers inflicts “Thousands of Injuries” upon him and embarrass' him publicly. In this essay I will be discussing three literary elements form this story. #1 the setting of urban Italy during carnival season, #2 the point of view that the story is told from, and #3 the theme of characters of Fortunato (flat) and Montresor (round) . The story has multiple locations that we get to explore, all of them play an important role in terms of character motivations. Our characters meet at a carnival during a time of the year aptly named “carnival season”. This location is crucial to …show more content…

The plot of a story can be simple if it has excellent characters. But a complex story with terrible characters is absolutely is unacceptable. In every story there are round characters and flat characters. Round characters are the complex ones who's motivations and back story's we have a good understanding of. Flat characters are not necessarily boring or simple, but may be presented in that way. They may have an aspect to them that is not revealed, like Fortunato. In the story he is pretty flat, we have a vague understanding of his relationship with Montresor, and we know he likes his partying and alcohol. On the other hand we have our round character Montresor. He is round mostly because the reader spends so much time in his head. We see him develop and be two faced. He masks his intensions and works towards a goal that is actually important, killing his enemy, and kill him he did. Round characters tend to surprise the reader. Many readers must have been a little surprised when they realized the method he intended to use to vanquish his enemy. It has to be the most memorable part of the entire story, and that is what round characters bring to the

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