The controversial topic of insanity manifests itself commonly in Romantic writing, and has been one much disputed over time. Some say that people who seem crazy are so above our own level of thought and understanding that we can’t possibly begin to identify with them and that we can find genius in the form of ordinary lunatics who connect to God and divinity in ways “normal” people don’t comprehend. Throughout works such as “The Cask of Amontillado and “The Castaway”, the authors question insanity with ideas that show the possible outcomes when one looks deep inside themselves for a divine spark or intuition. Both of these stories address madness in different forms, and madness itself is Godly experiences gone wrong; the person who receives the divine vision is unable to handle its raw truth.
As we immerse ourselves into Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, a powerful story of a man’s vengeance with “impunity”, we find that the narrator’s revenge was merely a materialization of his sinister, unrestricted human nature. The author vividly describes the resentment that the narrator feels towards the man who insulted him, and the lengths he goes to for revenge. Montressor, the narrator, swears retribution for Fortunato, whose “thousand injuries…[he] had borne as best [he] could, but when [Fortunato] ventured upon insult, [he] vowed revenge” (Poe). While the scheme sinuously progresses, Montressor thinks and acts with a certain lunacy that one cannot help but notice. Generally speaking, people wouldn’t resort to murder for simply a case of a rude, insolent offender, but the narrator has found himself looking deep inside, and what he finds is a malicious soul that wishes to harm those who have insulted him. He crafts a plan...
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... are so sure of their own destiny and God’s plan. God in mysterious, no human who hasn’t been exposed to God’s will has confirmation as to what the truth is, and one could say that it will be something so unbelievable, people can’t even begin to imagine the truth. For this reason, Pip is unable to entirely accept what God exposes to him in the ocean.
Throughout the world and the history of human’s existence, the nature of God and ourselves has been questioned constantly. Everywhere we turn, we see Insanity in our society today, and it’s interesting to give it a second thought, to wonder what it really means to be mentally unstable. As long as the universe goes on, living people may never know the answer; all we can do is form opinions, think, imagine, wait, listen, and develop sensitivity to all of our surroundings, where truth could be hiding anywhere, in anyone.
Have you ever met someone so clever, determined, and cruel to leave a man to die over an insult? Montresor is the perfect example of these character traits. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor uses all of these character traits to get revenge on Fortunado for insulting his family name. Montresor’s clever planning, determination for revenge, and cruel murder are the perfect combination for his unequaled revenge.
In Edgar Allen Poe’s story The Cask of Amontillado the main character Montresor tricks his friend Fortunato into his catacombs and buries him alive. Edgar Allen Poe’s character commits this deed out of a need for revenge because of some hurt that was committed against him. Poe conveys this need for revenge through his attention to the small details within his story.
As a story opens, an unnamed narrator first words says, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.”(164) Montresor who tells a story is taking revenge on Fortunato because he has suffered a “thousand injuries” although he never mentions exactly what happened. Edgar Allan Poe creates a perfect crime in a murder story “The Cask of Amontillado” through the use of a character that exhibits characteristics of a psychopath, a horrifying plot and a dramatic irony.
What is madness? Is madness a brain disorder or a chemical imbalance? On the other hand, is it an expressed behavior that is far different from what society would believe is "normal"? Lawrence Durrell addresses these questions when he explores society's response to madness in his short story pair "Zero and Asylum in the Snow," which resembles the nearly incoherent ramblings of a madman. In these stories, Durrell portrays how sane, or lucid, people cannot grasp and understand the concept of madness. This inability to understand madness leads society to fear behavior that is different from "normal," and subsequently, this fear dictates how they deal with it. These responses include putting a name to what they fear and locking it up in an effort to control it. Underlying all, however, Durrell repeatedly raises the question: who should define what is mad?
Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Pantheon, 1965.
The perils of vengeance and manipulation were evidently prominent in Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Cask of Amontillado. Through a unique application of first person narration, Poe captured the essence of suspense in a figure’s untrustworthy nature. Additionally, he used a strong foundation of character to introduce two critical members of the story who share an interesting relationship. For this particular story, the first person perspective was utilized quite effectively to develop the character Montresor. Depicting him was crucial to introducing Fortunato, the story’s second focus. A certain dramatic irony is noticeable throughout the sequence of events that eventually guides the reader to the story’s significant conclusion.
Revenge is most likely the most disputable human concept to exist. While many consider it a crime to seek vengeance, others view it as rightfully restoring justice. It is not uncommon in literature for revenge to be a recurring idea, due to its controversial nature. Ray Bradbury’s “The Utterly Perfect Murder” follows the journey of a man named Doug to claim the life of a man who had tormented him in his childhood years. Similarly, the narrator of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor, seeks revenge on his friend Fortunato and eventually kills him. Doug and Montresor’s motives and mental state are very similar, yet the outcomes of the execution of their revenge differ greatly.
The short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe tells the story of Montresor seeking revenge on Fortunato. Montresor does not specify what is exactly said that makes him commit premeditated murder. He mentions that it was an insult that turned him towards revenge the moment he heard it. He becomes obsessed with punishing Fortunato. Poe uses elements of horror to illustrate Montresor’s obsession for revenge leading to the death.
SparkNotes’ Analysis on Montresor’s motives in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” hurts student’s understanding of the short story by disregarding information in the text. SparkNotes claims that “The terror of ‘The Cask of Amontillado,’ as in many of Poe’s tales, resides in the lack of evidence that accompanies Montresor’s claims to Fortunato’s ‘thousand injuries’ and ‘insult.’” (SparkNotes). This presents Fortunato as an innocent victim of Montresor due to the lack of evidence presented. SparkNotes argues that Montresor is an unreliable narrator who kills Fortunato out of perceived wrongs rather than any actual basis for revenge: “Montresor uses his subjective experience of Fortunato’s insult to name himself judge, jury, and executioner
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
"I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong." With these ferverous words from the introductory paragraph of Edgar Allan Poe's Cask of Amontillado, the story of Montresor's revenge begins. Poe repeatedly stresses the need for revenge due to bitterness and resentment in Montresor's character towards Fortunato, but more importantly, stress is placed on revenge by which the victim realizes their injustice towards the redresser. Unfortunately, it seems that Montresor is denied this pure and encompassing revenge when his victim, Fortunato, during his last few minutes with Montresor, believes that his actions are a huge charade, and not the actions of a man scorned and seeking revenge. Although in burying Fortunato alive, Montresor is able to physically accomplish what he ultimately desired, he is left with an air of insatisfaction judging by his own definition of true and justified revenge. Poe shows the resentment Montresor feels towards Fortunato from the very first sentence of the story with, "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge." It is never specified what this injury was to Montresor, but it was so obviously so heinous that Fortunato was not to be spared. Later in the story, M...
“Obsession is the single most wasteful human activity, with an obsession you keep coming back to the same question and never receive an answer.” Ones guilt and obsessions can turn a normal human into an abnormal madman. The two short stories “The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl” by Ray Bradbury, and “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe are two different pieces of text that share the same content such as theme, characters, and setting. “The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl” is a story that describes how possibly a man can turn obsessed by killing another man in revenge and freak out about where he has left his last finger prints. Where “The Tell Tale Heart” is a short story that explains to the readers how much guilt can eat ones mind alive and make them confess the truth. Both these stories relate when it comes to murder and madness and also similar in content. The next few paragraphs will explain how obsessions and guilt are the two main reasons that drive normal humans into crazy psychopaths, which also leads to the theme “Madness”. Also analyzing the text to find similar content between both stories such as setting, theme and characters.
Edgar Allen Poe’s tale of murder and revenge, “The Cask of Amontillado”, offers a unique perspective into the mind of a deranged murderer. The effectiveness of the story is largely due to its first person point of view, which allows the reader a deeper involvement into the thoughts and motivations of the protagonist, Montresor. The first person narration results in an unbalanced viewpoint on the central conflict of the story, man versus man, because the reader knows very little about the thoughts of the antagonist, Fortunato. The setting of “The Cask of Amontillado”, in the dark catacombs of Montresor’s wine cellar, contributes to the story’s theme that some people will go to great lengths to fanatically defend their honor.
Many readers find Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado” to be gruesome in the way Montresor seeks revenge on Fortunato. Due to this twisted punishment, readers often dislike “The Cask of Amontillado” as a whole, discrediting the literary genius Poe truly is. This is not a good judgment on the story, it’s a judgment concerning Poe and his style of not ending a novel or book with a happy ending. Because of Fortunato’s actions, his consequences are just. The punishment Fortunato endures is deserved because he knows what he is getting into. He knows it is Montresor yet continues to play the game with him. As well as playing along, Fortunato lets his rivalry with other wine experts cloud his judgment, causing him to get into a bad situation.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature. Ed. Wayne Franklin, Philip F. Gurpa, Arnold Krupat. New York: Norton, 2007. 1612-1613, 1616. Print.