I cannot begin talking about “The Cask of Amontillado” without first mentioning its author, Mr. Edgar Allen Poe and his unique style of writing. Poe’s style of writing is described as “Dark Gothic.” Poe uses irony to create a comedic effect which only foreshadows the horror ahead; his short story writing still giving readers the full effect of the story; Poe felt a story should be read in one sitting, with each event occurring in order keeping with the storyline as he states in his essay “The Philosophy of Composition.” His use of imagery and symbolism putting pictures in our minds leaving us in suspense; the unreliable narrator, clearly in an effort to substantiate his sanity is definite verification of his insanity. Poe’s immense use of never ending dramatic irony grabs the reader from beginning to end in “The Cask of Amontillado.” I will begin with a short summary. The story is told by Montresor, the protagonist in the story. He is a cold-blooded killer who leads his friend, Fortunato to his death. He guides Fortunato down to the burial place of his ancestors. He traps him, padlocks him, chains him, and buries him alive. As we begin the narrative is definitely first person, featuring our very “unreliable narrator”, Montresor. The fear he has placed within us as he tells us the story of this heinous crime he has committed against his friend fifty years prior to the story’s telling. Montresor said he wanted to punish with impunity, so he does not wish to face any unpleasant consequences. In his own words, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could…I vowed revenge.” This plot of revenge is clearly stated, the motive for revenge is unclear. This alone makes us distrust the narrato... ... middle of paper ... ...udacity to say, “In pace requiescat!” Rest in Peace? I cannot imagine the torture Fortunato experienced being buried and burned alive. The style of the story is somewhat discombobulating, but this is Poe’s signature to the work. These ultimately mind contorting work grabs the attention from the reader in the opening line. The “Cask of Amontillado” is not written in a simple manner; if it were then it could not have been written by Edgar Allen Poe. Overall, the story is filled with irony, symbolism and imagery, embedded in a plot. Essentially, the story completely revolves around the components of irony. As disturbing as the story ends, the reader encounters a myriad of foreshadowing elements, and although we know how the story ends Poe still leaves us with bewilderment and unanswered questions buried within the story that can never be fully answered.
Montresor, fifty years after it happened, is confessing to the murder of his foe, Fortunato. He justifies his actions by saying that Fortunato caused him a thous...
Fortunato: The man who injured Montresor “thousands” of times and insulted him hence causing his death because Montresor took revenge on him.
Literary devices are tools used by the author to help the reader understand a given literary work. Writers use different literary devices depending on their style and what they wish their reader to get out of their work. One important literary device that is essential for a successful literary work is theme. Theme is the general insight into life that the author shares with the reader. There are a number of different methods from which an author can choose to present his/her theme. One common strategy is to communicate the theme through the use of mood; the overall feeling or emotion conjured within the reader. In Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The Cask of Amontillado," and in Saki's short story, "The Interlopers," the mood evoked within the reader is used to communicate the short story's overall theme.
...cattered pile of bones and masonry supplies along with the smiling skulls on the walls. Montressor turned around to open the door but it was locked as to be expected, and he turned around and saw the ghost of Fortunato holding the trowel he was buried with. “Hello friend, I have been waiting for this moment since you killed me and I was not allowed to leave this world”, said Fortunato in a voice laced with murderous anticipation. Fortunato raised the trowel above Montressor and Montressor sank to the floor begging for mercy “Please forgive me! Please!” he yelled. But Fortunato wanted so badly to exact his revenge so he brought the trowel crashing down on Montressor’s head 3 times for each man he had killed. Using all the strength a ghost possibly could, he dragged the body to the very entrance of the vaults and placed a note on it reading “The Work of Fortunato”.
Vengeance and pride are fundamentally important to this short story. From the inception of the tale it is clear that the narrator is a proud, vindictive man; opening with, “the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge,” the narrator immediately alerts the reader to the dark aspects of his own character. Because “insult” and not “the thousand injuries” caused the narrator to “vow” revenge, the reader can infer Montresor is prideful because, although he already had conflict with Fortunato, insult was what made the tense situation unbearable for Montresor––so much so that he vowed to take action. Use of the word “vow” is significant because it indicates that the grievance was meaningful in the mind of Montresor, allowing for the reader to more easily identify with the actions to be revealed throughout the course of the story; if the reader believes that Montresor was provoked in a profound way, ...
Russ,RJ.” Symbolism In edgar Allan Poe’s ‘ The Cask Of Amontillado’.” Yahoo Voices.Yahoo, Inc.,28 April 2008. Web.17 March 2014.
The Cask of Amontillado is considered to be one of the best short stories. Written by Edgar Allan Poe in first person and having all the main events as a three hundred page fiction book, The Cask of Amontillado is a complete novel. This short story has several themes which function from the first page of the story such as: suspense, fear, and revenge.
Hess, Julie R. "Poe's Use of Irony in "The Cask of Amontillado"." Writing for the Arts and Humanities. December 2, 2005. http://www.webpages.shepherd.edu/jhess02/TheCaskofAmontilladobyPoe.htm (accessed January 30, 2014).
Edgar Allan Poe is a comedian. To some people, his humor may not be as appealing compared to that of a stand-up comedian, but he is wise in his ideas nonetheless. His dark sense of humor goes hand-in-hand with the sick, twisted thoughts that produce his ingenuity. His humor is sly in style yet complex in content, and he makes this extremely evident in his works. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Poe cleverly flashes his comedic bravado in front of his audience’s face through interactions between the characters and their surroundings. He leaves subtle hints which are meant to cue the readers into discovering the humor in his perverted puns. Although puns may not be his literary forte, Poe is able to utilize his uncanny sense of dark humor and add
In her article, Renee utters that when the thought of vengeance build up in an individual’s brain, it coerces him insane and does not tolerate him to present it a second thought. The first sentence of the story, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge,” clearly describes the whole theme of the story as a deeply enrooted revenge in Montresor’s mind” which is an absolute portrayal of retribution that occurs due to arrogance and jealousy. Author sees himself as a superior individual and was victimized by a superiority complex which is quite visible through the phrases which he wrote in the story that Montressor expresses superiority as showed his victim as a foolish person by attributing weird physical appearance and dress appearance in which he described his dress code of “tight fitting parti striped dress and head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.”
Edgar Allan Poe's strong use of symbols throughout "The Cask of Amontillado" is what makes this story worthy of examination. The clever use of these devices by the author to shape this horrifying and gripping short story has made this piece be regarded as a classic American horror story, which revolves around the theme of vengeance and pride.
Edgar Allen Poe’s gruesomely fascinating tale of vengeance and murder, “The Cask of Amontillado”, achieves its effect only through its usage of the first person point of view. This unusual perspective enables the reader to view the characters and conflicts through the eyes of the narrator, as he first discusses and justifies, and eventually, carries out his plans for the ruthless murder of his friend. The eerie tone and disorienting and materialistically-related setting of the story contribute to its theme of defending one’s honor and name and avenging all wrongdoings, even something so small as an insult.
Edgar Allan Poe is a famous writer in writing detective stories and horror stories. One of his horror stories, “The Cask of Amontillado” was talking about how a man took his revenge to his friend. However, to look deeply in this story, I found that this story was not just simply a horror tale about how a man gets his revenge in the safest way. Instead, it also demonstrates much irony in several areas: the title, the event, the season, the costume, the environment, the characters’ personalities, a man’s dignity and cockiness and at the end, the public order. he are
The major characteristics of the narrator and main character, Montresor, are anger, hatred, and revenge. In the story, he is angry with Fortunato because he believes that Fortunato has wronged and insulted him many times by saying, “thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could…he ventured upon insult…” (Poe). In addition, Montresor’s hatred for Fortunato goes so far that he believes he must kill Fortunato. He mentions this in the story as, “[y]ou, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat” (Poe). He seems to say that his soul is made of hatred and goes on to say he must give Fortunato the utmost punishment: death. Montresor even shows traits of revenge when he says, “…but when [Fortunato] ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” and “...I would be avenged…” (Poe). He is saying that he will get revenge on Fortunato, whom he is angry with and hates for being insulted by.
"Poe was a complex person, tormented and alcoholic yet also considerate and humorous, a good friend, and an affectionate husband. Indeed, his painful life, his neurotic attraction to intense beauty, violent horror, and death, and his sense of the world of dreams contributed to his greatness as a writer"(2). This was true of Poe's literature. The Cast of Amontillado is full of suspense, shows different Kinds of wine and the complexity of Poe's personality can be shown in the Characters .Some critics have said that the cask of Amontillado can be read as an allegory of two portraits of Poe. I think The Cask of Amontillado is a Portrait of Poe and that of his critics. It is a story that is full of symbols.