Compare And Contrast A Rose For Emily And A Cask Of Amontillado

.

Samuel Johnson once said, “Actions are visible, though motives are secret.” In the two passages, “A Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Montresor and Emily did similar things however, their motives are completely different. These two characters have committed a crime towards the antagonist, however one was for love and the other was from hate. The differences in the characters show how looks can be deceiving.
Montresor has a strong hatred for Fortunato this hate has been in him for a while he planned to murder him from the very beginning unlike Emily. Emily met Homer and grew fond of him she fell in love with him actually. Her father died before she ever met Homer so she lost the person she

loved most in the world. Now if the reader would take these two story who would they say was more in the wrong? Montresor right. But didn’t they do the same thing? They did they murdered someone. Montresor says “I must not only punish but punish with impunity” (Poe 866). He wanted to kill without consequences, and he admits to it in the very beginning. On the other hand Emily was going to commit suicide when she met Homer. He made her blissful while Fortunato did the exact opposite for Montresor.
“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge”(Poe 219). They were both were of a higher class and they were most likely after the same goal. Absent mindedly Fortunato must have made countless remarks about Montresor’s family and something he said pushed him off the edge. Montresor gave his crime a reason. He was protecting his family name. Now Emily, on the other hand, she goes from wanting to kill herself with a blade then gets distracted by Homer then this scene happens where she buys poison. “I want the best you have. I don’t care what kind.” she says to the druggist. He asked her several times what it was for but she did not respond. Even though she made no effort to keep it a secret no one questioned when she bought poison or her suicidal acts. In both stories when both Fortunato and Homer died nobody questioned it.