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Edgar allan poe analysis writing
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When trying to decode “Edgar Allen Poe’s” work you must realize his background is puzzling and that his work is intimate with many facets and niches in his life. The story I chose was “Edgar Allen Poe’s” “The Cask of Amontillado”, I chose it because I have extended exposure to “Edgar Allen Poe’s” work and do not know the others as well as him. Interpretation is what gives a person’s work meaning and staying power, “Edgar Allen Poe’s” work is best to be described as literary Rorschach tests in where many people have different interpretations but they are not wrong. Plot has many ways to write and approach, the three-act structure, the Freytag’s pyramid, even the natural writing process is getting attention in today’s entertainment environment. …show more content…
There are two locations Italy during a carnival and an underground catacomb, these locations are stark enough to make sure they are fitting for each character for example Fortunato is active during the carnival scenery with an upper hand in the conversation and Montresor is quiet and content in the catacombs, these easily enhance the characters and give you visual leaning towards them. There is an interesting piece of dialogue when you hear about how there is cramped space in the catacombs leaning to where they are slowly losing their freedom and life. "These vaults," he said, "are extensive. (Poe 47) " And "Ugh! ugh! ugh! --ugh! ugh! ugh! --ugh! ugh! ugh! --ugh! ugh! ugh! --ugh! ugh! ugh! (Poe 31-32) " are words that symbolize how slowly Fortunato is losing his life. Montresor is our narrator so he is our default point of view, what makes this more interesting is that this narrator has conflicting viewpoints and actions with his story. With lines like how the names might be fake with the lines, “"The Montresor’s," I replied, "were a great and numerous family.” (Poe line 67)” it implies that this is a fake name and the narrator is hiding his identity through a believable lie. He’s an unreliable character and is also unsympathetic since he has killed a person over something pity and chosen to be proud of …show more content…
I interpret this story as a tale of a guy who took things too far and is way too happy with the results of his actions. With how Montresor is too eager to send a man deep into the catacombs and kill a man, and the short path from point a to point b. With the last line of the story “In pace requiescat! (Poe 97)” that is how “Edgar Allen Poe wanted to end his story, with the narrator telling the audience that Fortunato rested in peace with no body to disturb his resting
Russ,RJ.” Symbolism In edgar Allan Poe’s ‘ The Cask Of Amontillado’.” Yahoo Voices.Yahoo, Inc.,28 April 2008. Web.17 March 2014.
One of the most horrifying lines in the story is given by Montresor after Fortunato says, “I will not die of a cough” (Baym ). Montresor says, “True— true....” (Baym ). It seems that Montresor 's murder plot became subconsciously manifest in those two words. Dramatic irony is irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the story (“dramatic-irony”) and Poe uses this effectively in this story. For example, Montresor expresses concern about Fortunato and says, "Come, I said, with decision, we will go back; your health is
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
...ows the reader to interpret the end of the story by himself, which brings imagination into the picture. Why does Montresor hesitate in putting up the last stone? This makes the reader wonder if Montresor was beginning to feel guilty. At the end of the story Montresor and Fortunato talk a little. Montresor called aloud, "Fortunato!" No answer came so Montresor states, "I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came forth only a jingling of the bells. My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so"(153). This statement leads the reader to believe that Montresor may have had a moment when his conscience begins to creep up on him. He quickly states that it is the dampness of the catacombs that makes his heart sick.
In his article, he mainly wanted to answer two questions; 1) What could have been Montresor’s motive to kill Fortunato? And 2) Why did he wait fifty years to tell the story? As I finished DiSanza’s article, neither of those questions were actually answered. I guess that’s because no one but Poe himself could really tell us readers why. Bales, Kent and Gargano were DiSanza’s most used sources and even those authors couldn’t answer his main questions, which he based his article around. I found that while reading “On Memory, Forgetting, and Complicity in “The Cask of Amontillado”” by Raymond DiSanza, Edgar Allan Poe’s short story causes the reader to ask many questions. In which, those questions interconnect more frequently than you’d think. DiSanza makes you realize Poe never mentions Montresor’s motive because he knew exactly how the readers would react. A great tactic Poe brilliantly uses, purposefully leaving out information in order to create suspense and mystery; causing the reader to wonder. Poe wanted us to overanalyze and try to figure out the many possibilities behind these questions, he wanted us to think in a way we wouldn’t have. He is able to avoid giving examples of what these injuries Fortunato put upon Montresor were. Poe 's problem in writing this story include keeping the reader somewhat sympathetic for a man who was able to bury another man
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 story starts out in the familiar festive social setting of the carnival. In this catholic celebration, people dress in costume and masks and drink. This celebration occurs just before Lent on the Christian calendar. This setting is conventional, making it hard to tell the identity of each other. This creates a sense of chaos and estrangement, commonly found in the gothic genre. However, this is also an unconventionally ironic setting to start a story about revenge because the carnival was a celebration of life, yet Montressor has chosen this day to commit murder. furthermore, it is then introduced to Fortunato, who is dressed in motley. This is ironic because his name means fortunate, yet he is dressed as a fool. The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting pants-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells. I was so pleased to see him that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand. This characterization also symbolizes his character because his arrogance and ego are what cause him to be foolishly misled by Montressor to his death. Montressor is also dressed according to his character. The story dresses him in black with a mask, symbolizing evil and death. The irony of the way that these characters are dressed add to the terror of the story because it states that although Fortunato Is actually foolish, he is an innocent drunk who does not deserve to die. Montressor is a mysterious evil character because the reader never find out the reasoning behind his actions and, therefore, can perceive him early on as a psychotic and evil person. This mystery is even further unsettling for the reader. Later on in the story, their characters become even more obvious. Fortunato is unable to realize Montresor 's intentions. He makes a reference to the freemason, which he believe Montressor is not part of. Ironically, Montressor makes a disturbing joke that he
How simple, indeed--at least until we examine a group of irreconcilable paradoxes in the story. To begin with, the names Montresor and Fortunato are synonymous. (Hoffman 223) Secondly, we find that the motive for the crime was some unnamed insult. Motives for killing someone should be important enough to detail. Why does Poe have Montresor gloss over the motives? One view is that Montresor relates the details of the murder not to justify his actions, but as a form of confession. But if this be confession, where is the regret? Again, Poe leaves his readers mystified concerning the time and location for issuance of the narrative voice. If Montresor still lives, he must be a very old man. If so, the phantasms of his deed may have horrified him all of his life. Then why does he not seem horrified? If this be confession, then why does he seem not penitent?
He took his time getting his revenge, he studied Fortunato, he thought everything out perfectly, he planned everything out, and then sought out to get his revenge. He knew how he could attract Fortunato, Fortunato loved wine. They went back to Montresor’s house, to taste some wine, but beforehand Montresor has made sure there “were no attendants at home… I had told them that I should not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned” (Poe 63). It is absolutely astonishing how intelligent and thought-out Montresor’s revenge was. He knew that by giving his maids orders to stay watching over his house while he was out, they would immediately leave as soon as he did. Not only that but also he knew that Fortunato could not resist wine tasting, which is why he used it as bait. Not everyone will take the time to think every step through and be intelligent about every move they make, but Montresor did, which comes to show how serious he is about his revenge, how intelligent yet insane he is, and headstrong he is about not wanting to forgive
The story opens up during carnival season, which is a time of happiness and fun. Even as the story progresses, the reader is amused because of the costumes and because of Fortunato’s drunken state, but the mood begins to change as Montresor leads him further into the catacombs. The “flambeaux” (169) depicts that the catacombs are dark, while the “foulness of the air” (169) is sickening, affecting the reader’s senses of sight and smell and setting the tone as more eerie than humerus. The human remains scattered inside the crypt furthers the dark mood, and that mood turns to horror as Montresor chains Fortunato and begins to surround him with a brick wall. A glimpse of hope and humor is erected as Fortunato cries out “A very good joke, indeed. An excellent jest.” (170) For a moment, the possibility that it all is a joke lingers, until the torch is thrust “through the remaining aperture.”
In the "Cask Of Amontillado" there are three main symbols that are crucial to the storyline. There are the Catacombs which while obviously representing death as it is a eerie place that is full of dead bodies, it also shows the isolation of Fortunato to the outside world; While also foreshadowing his impending fate.
Because Montresor narrates the story in the first person, the reader is able to perceive his thoughts and understand his motivations and justifications for his ruthless murder in a manner which a third person point of view would not allow. Montresor’s personal narration of the events of the story does not justify his crime in the audience’s eyes, but it does offer a unique opportunity for the audience to view a murder from the perspective of a madman killer. It is Poe’s usage of this unique angle that causes the story to be so captivating and gruesomely fascinating. As the story opens, Montresor explains why it is necessary that he “not only punish but punish with impunity” to avenge for Fortunado’s insult to him. This justification for his crime is a piece of information that the audience is able to learn only because they are permitted inside the mind of the protagonist. In the final scene, when Montresor is carrying out his murder pl...
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.
Within the story, Montresor is really losing his mind by showing that he wants to kill Fortunato but we the readers don’t know why he wants to kill him. In this passage, “ The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when
The main reasons for Montresor’s traits are his family arms and family motto. He mentions his family arms as, “[a] huge human foot d’or, in a field of azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel” (Poe). This quote, to me, means as, “[a] ...