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Imagine walking down the street alone and you see two men. You don’t know who they are and you encounter them. They ask a question, “Where do you live? Who are you?” This would make many people suspicious and nervous. Montresor and Fortunato are two men walking down the street in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” Montresor wants revenge on Fortunato. He offers Fortunato some nice wine to get him down into the catacombs. Poe uses suspense when the men are about to go down to the catacombs which creates nervous mood. In the short story the “Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe the author uses suspense to create mood. A suspenseful moment is when Montresor takes Fortunato down to the catacombs. Fortunato is drunk and doesn’t
Montresor must trick and manipulate Fortunato to accomplish his goal of revenge. He tells Fortunato the reason he is at the ...
Suspense is the feeling of uncertainty or excitement, in waiting for an outcome or decision. Edgar Allan Poe uses suspense in his story “Masque of the Red Death” by using objects and great descriptive detail. Poe’s story is about a prince that tries to escape from the inevitable. He tries to lock himself away from the ‘red death’ and has a masquerade ball that doesn’t end happily. Prince and all of his guests die inside or around the seventh apartment room. The seventh room is preceded by six colored rooms which are meant to symbolize either the stages of life, or the seven sins. Inside the last room there are black velvet tapestries that hang all over the ceiling and down the walls. The window panes are a deep blood red color which gives the room an unwelcoming atmosphere. On the western wall, there is a gigantic clock of a deep black wood. Inside it has a pendulum that swings back and forth with a dull monotonous clang. When the minute hand marks a new hour, there is a clear, loud, deep sound, which can be heard from far away. Although it can give off an eerie feeling, the great eb...
Dramatic Irony is when an author allows the reader to know more than his/her characters in the story. This technique is used by the authors to add suspense to their literature. Edgar Allen Poe created many suspenseful stories using dramatic irony for the purpose of creating themes about human nature. In the short story “The Cask Of Amontillado,” Edgar Allen Poe uses dramatic irony to develop the theme that one should be careful about insulting another because he/she will seek revenge.
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is a mystery that offers great suspense and interest. This is because of the irony that Poe creates and the setting that makes a dangerous mood and foreshadows the victim’s death. In the beginning of the story, the narrator meets a man named Fortunato at an Italian carnival with the intentions for murdering him in the foreseeable future. The narrator talks with Fortunato saying, “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met,” (1). These first words spoken by the narrator show verbal irony because the narrator is not really saying that they met luckily. In fact, as I stated before, the narrator was planning this encounter, with the plan ending with Fortunato’s death. This proves to be suspenseful for the reader because they want to discover Fortunato’s actual fate while wishing they could tell Fortunato of the
Is there really a perfect crime? This is the main point in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” The story is a dark tale of a presumably insane man who suffers from, according to him, “the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could” (Poe 75). One of the major factors in telling this story is the setting. The story is set primarily in the Montresor family catacombs, which provides the dark setting, filled with human remains, and this reflects where Montresor commits his crime, where no one will expect. Furthermore, the narration also helps in telling the story. It is first person point of view, so the story is heard entirely from him. Readers will go into Montresor’s thoughts and be curious about why he wants to kill Fortunato so badly. Furthermore, the symbolism of the story is very important and many symbols in symbolizing Montresor killing Fortunato. Finally, the insane Montresor tried to pull the perfect crime but fails; he does not pull the perfect crime, he fails his goal when he realizes he is doing a bad thing.
One of the most famous authors in American history is Edgar Allen Poe, thanks to his intricate and unsettling short stories and poems. One of the strongest aspects of Poe’s writing style is the allure and complexity of the narrator of the story. These narrators, ranging from innocent bystanders to psychotic murderers, add depth to such a short story and really allow Poe to explore the themes of death and murder which he seems to have an unhealthy obsession towards. Furthermore, he uses these narrators to give a different perspective in each of his many works and to really unsettle the reader by what is occurring throughout the story. The narrators, whether an innocent witness of death as in "The Fall of the House of Usher" or a twisted murderer as in "The Cask of Amontillado" are used by Poe to discuss the themes of death and murder within these stories and, depending on their point of view, give a different take on such a despicable act such as murder.
Fortunato doesn’t want to go over “it is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted.’ The vaults are insufferably damp.’ They are encrusted with nitre” (4). Fortunato sensed that Montresor is inviting him over to get back at him for the thousand injuries he has done to him. Montresor plan is to get him in the vaults and slowly as they keep walking through the catacombs, letting the nitre Fortunato is inhaling kill him. As they walk through the catacombs Fortunato starts cough impatiently trying to gasp for air, but let’s Montresor know it is nothing. This shows how Montresor deceives Fortunato into thinking it’s a friendly walk through the catacombs as he is drinking some of the Amontillado he promised to offer him that’s causing Fortunato to have a sever cough. They reach a point in which Fortunato collapses on the ground because it gets hard for Fortunato to breathe, in addition he is super intoxicated. Montresor sees his opportunity and takes advantage to chain Fortunato from his ankle “a moment more and I had fettered him to the granite” (8). While Fortunato is tied up, Montresor builds a wall so he could conceal him in the catacombs “I had completed the eight, the
Why are Edgar Allan Poe’s works so poignant and heavy when read? Poe uses a variety of literary devices to convey what he wants to the reader, but imagery is the most impactful of them all. He allows the readers to step into his stories and permits them to feel as they have been taken into the story. Poe’s portrayal of tragedies and dark stories in his works such as “The Black Cat,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Cask of Amontillado” depends mainly on his use of one artistic tool, imagery. Each of these three stories explores tragedies or either dark, twisted characters that make some inhumane decisions for some reason or another.
1. What can the reader infer about Montresor’s social position and character from hints in the text? What evidence does the text provide that Montresor is an unreliable narrator? We learned from paragraph 23 to 24 that Montresor owns a Palazzo and also has lot of retainers based on that evidence, the reader can infer that Montresor is a very wealthy and successful man. About his character, the reader can imply that Montresor is a heartless, cold blooded, sneaky, manipulative, and untrustworthy man, as well as a man who hold on to grudges. Moreover, Montresor is an unreliable narrator, because he reveals in the first paragraph that he intends to have a revenge on Fortunato, but he did not indicate or clearly prove to the readers how Fortunato
Over the course of human history, we as a species have progressed an unimaginably large amount. The source of this progression? Innovation. Without innovation, there is no progression. This then begs another question: why do we innovate? The answer to this is simply that we have issues that we must overcome. We have to innovate to solve our problems, but then those leads to more problems, and therefore more innovation. Although this is a large scale example, the spirit of invention is also important in everyday life as we face our own smaller-scale problems. Without invention, how can we expect to get anywhere? How can we ever accomplish anything, or resolve anything? Without invention, we wouldn’t have electricity, automobiles, or television. We also wouldn’t have success, joy, or relationships, as there are problems that we must solve to
Humans have always struggled against confinement and toward freedom. However, they choose not to recognize that history has proved time and again that too much freedom incites anarchy and too much confinement invites tyranny. It’s the nature of all animals to desire freedom and resist confinement. Many times the animal struggles so blindly it does not recognize it is destroying itself or condemning itself to further confinement. In “The Cask of Amontillado” Fortunato and Montresor are symbols of how human nature manifests differently in different people in varying combinations of psychological and physical freedom and confinement.
The perfect revenge is an action so many scorned have attempted and what so many more have lusted after. Apt punishment for the offender, success without being discovered and fulfillment without regret are all elements for satisfactory vengeance. All were present in "The Cask of Amontillado." However, despite Montresor's actions seeming to be perfect, he does not fulfill the criteria for flawless revenge. Poe doesn't quite allow readers to feel convinced of his main character's peace of mind. Subtle indications are strewn throughout the story that suggest otherwise. Though Montresor intended to cleanse his honor of Fortunato's insults, it may very well be that he only succeeded in creating, for himself, a guilty conscience, forever depriving himself of the sweetness of revenge.
When they arrive at the Montresor estate, Montresor leads Fortunato down the stairs into the catacombs. Down here is where the Amontillado Fortunato is going to taste and where the revenge of Montresor is going to take place. As he get closer and closer, the narrator opens up more and more to how he is going to kill his "friend". It sound like it is a premeditated murder. Montresor seems so inconspicuous that he acts like he cares about Fortunato which is still a part of his plan.
The setting of a story sets the tone for the entire piece. Without the appropriate setting, what the author is trying to express is lost. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Edgar Allan Poe uses the setting as a way to set the stage for the events that will come. Poe’s settings make his stories interesting, as well as easy to understand because of his descriptiveness and writing techniques. His use of vivid details and symbols in his settings intrigue the readers and set a particular tone. Each and every setting has a direct meaning and reason attached to that of the story and time.
One of the most respected psychologists, Edward Thorndike, defined psychology as, “the science of the intellects, characters and behavior of animals including man.” When critiquing literary works from a psychological perspective, the author’s life is linked with the behavior and motivations of the characters in the literary work being critiqued. In the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado”, the author is Edgar Allan Poe, who portrays himself and his state of mind within the story. Montresor is a reflection of Poe 's character in the sense that he experiences Poe 's misery and depression as well as the emotional detachment from his victim. His tragic life is by some means connected to his writings, in which he portrays himself through the