Essay Comparing The Cask Of Amontillado And The Masque Of Red Death

In “The Masque of Red Death” and “The cask of Amontillado”, Edgar Allan Poe warns the reader that overconfidence and pride will often lead to death. To convey this idea Poe has used similar setting and Characters.

In both stories Poe uses similar character traits to convey his message of how overconfidence could ultimately lead to death. Firstly, in “The Masque of Red death”, Prospero dies due to his pride and false belief that death can not touch him because of his high rank. The author exclaims, “And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour. But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious” (Poe300). Similarly, in “The Cask Of Amontillado”, Fortunato’s overconfidence and

pride results in his catastrophic downfall.

Fortunato declares, “Let us go nevertheless. The cold is merely nothing. Amontillado! You have been imposed upon. And as for Luchesi, he can not distinguish Sherry from Amontillado” (Poe305). The character in both stories due to the result of their overconfident behavior. Prince Prospero was ‘happy’ and ‘dauntless’ as he believed he is indestructible and death can not touch him. He could not realise the fact that locking himself in a castle with all the “appliances of pleasure” could not assist him in escaping death and this made him overconfident. Similarly in “The Cask Of Amontillado”. Fortunato considers himself as the best wine expert. He is proud of his abilities and goes to a very high extent to make the use of his skills. He was so confident about his knowledge about the types of wine that he thinks no one is better than him. He overestimates his skill for determining the wine and displays hubris.He

then ventured to taste the wine which ultimately leads to his death. Hence in “ The Masque Of Red death” and “ The Cask Of Amontillado” the similar flaw of overconfidence among the characters lead to their ultimate death.
The use of Poe’s similar setting in both short stories gives a sense of overconfidence to the protagonist of his stories which eventually leads to their death.

Poe in “ The Masque of Red Death”, describes the scene of the highly protected castle and the masquerade that results in Prince’s over confidence and hence his death. The author declares, “A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts” (Poe 300). In “ The Cask of Amontillado”, Poe creates a dark and a dull setting which symbolically meant the rising of Fortunato’s death. Montresor warns Fortunato, “It is not engagement, but the severe cold which I perceive you are afflicted. The vaults are insufferably damp. They are encrusted with nitre” (Poe305).The atmosphere of each story changes as it progresses which is clear since the both stories begin with a very peaceful and joyful feel but conclude with a very depressing and gloomy one. In “The Masque of Red Death” the courtiers had welded the doors and the castle was protected with iron gates which made the Prince overconfident to think that death will not be able to enter his castle. The joyful atmosphere also made him not to worry about the red death while others were terrified and his belief of escaping death by locking him self ultimately lead to his death lead. Moreover in "The Cask Of Amontillado", the harsh conditions in the Catacombs does not make Fortunato

afraid and he is eager to help Montresor. He doesn't let the "damp" and "cold" atmosphere of the vault and the dark passages to destroy and question his abilities and in this way he becomes overconfident. He is then deceived by Montresor and buried alive. In conclusion, in "the Masque Of Red Death" and "The Cask Of Amontillado" Poe makes use of similar setting to signify how overconfidence results in death.