Compare And Contrast Hop Frog And The Cask Of Amontillado

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Michael DuBois
Mrs. Ermis
English 1302.NO2
10 April, 2016
Revenge at its Finest
Like most of Edgar Allan Poe’s work the concept behind both of these stories is the themes of death and revenge. In both “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Hop Frog”, Poe makes it a point to reveal the struggles of both characters and that they seek revenge for what has happened in their past. In “Hop Frog” he decides he has had enough when the king slaps his friend Trippetta for sticking up for him. Along with all the vicious jokes and torture that he puts on both Hop Frog and Trippetta, the physical abuse was just the thing that puts Hop Frog over his limit. In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor seeks revenge on Fortunato for the rude embarrassing …show more content…

Like in “Hop Frog” where he is gritting his teeth after the king says or does something to him. This is showing anger, and he immediately begins to contemplate how he is going to get back at the king and his council. What puts everything over the edge though, is when the king and his court were tormenting Hop Frog to drink the wine and were forcing it to him. “Trippetta, pale as a corpse, advanced to the monarch’s seat, and, falling on her knees before him, implored him to spare her friend” (Poe, “Hop” 3). Trippetta begs the king to make it stop and he slaps her and immediately goes to laughing with his friends, this is when Hop Frog feels he has had enough (Poe, “Hop” 3). He immediately goes to gritting and grinding his teeth in the disgust of this moment and knows that something must be done. When the king and his council hear this from the jester they question him about it, but Hop Frog denies it immediately knowing that they must think nothing of it and they cannot find out about his future plans for them. All through this time of Hop Frog being mad and frustrated with the way he is being treated by the king, he is developing and showing what is going to happen in the future. Hop Frog knows what he wants to do and immediately begins his plot for revenge and is just waiting for the opportunity to …show more content…

The protagonists Montresor wants to get back at Fortunato for deeply insulting him and Montresor vows for revenge. During the fall carnival, he sees his opportunity and is quick to pounce on this and put his plan into place. “With Fortunato intoxicated and falling and stumbling all over the place Montresor knows that the time is now” (Russell 211). Montresor knows Fortunato’s weakness for wine and Montresor tells him he found Amontillado a very rare wine and it is in his vault. Montresor knows how far Fortunato will go for wine as rare as Amontillado and that is what eventually leads to his tormented and revengeful death. Edgar Allan Poe also gives lots of scenes that foreshadow to the future and the plotting about the death of Fortunato and the steps leading up to it. “The great example is putting Montresor into the future fifty years later telling the story and everything that went into the murder that he had committed” (Elliot 268). Poe depicts that revenge is very sweet and even fifty years later, that the deep gothic death and revenge themes still show up in Poe’s writings (Russell

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