The short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edger Allen Poe and the film, The Hunter of the Night by Charles Laughton are similar pieces. “The Cask of Amontillado,” is about a man who gets revenge on an acquaintance by leading him into his catacombs with the promise of wine and then traps him there. The Hunter of the Night is about a preacher who marries a widow with the intention of finding the money her children are hiding. Both “The Cask of Amontillado,” and The Hunter of the Night convey a suspenseful mood. Poe uses irony and imagery to reveal this feeling, while Laughton uses sound effects, lighting and props. Although these two pieces explore a similar mood, they also differ in how they achieve the goal of creating unsettling feeling for the audience. Verbal irony and sound effects help create both an unsettling feeling and suspenseful mood. …show more content…
Verbal irony, used by Poe and sound effects, used by Laughton help create a suspenseful mood.
Poe writes, “We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible,” (page 3) This demonstrates verbal irony because Montresor does not care about Fortunato’s health, he is just humoring himself and Fortunato by saying this. This begins to establish the suspenseful mood because he says something scary. Laughton uses sound effects and music many times in his movie. One example that he uses many times throughout the movie is, increasing loud music. In other words, He does this to make the viewer anticipate what is coming. This helps the mood of the movie because the fast, loud music makes the viewer anticipate what is coming. The literary and cinematic devices used show a suspenseful mood, however they are not the only way to do
so. In a short story, imagery can really help you picture the setting and get a good grasp on the mood, props can do the same thing for a movie. For instance, “We had passed through long walls of piled skeletons, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs,” (pg 3). Poe lets the reader imagine what is happening by thoroughly describing the characters surroundings. By using dark words such as “skeletons,” and “catacombs,” he makes the reader feel unsettled, resulting in a suspenseful mood. One example of a prop from Laughton’s movie is Henry Powell’s knife. From the beginning of the movie he pulls it out when he is angry. The prop contributes to the mood because it scares the viewers and arises the question of what will he do with the knife. Of course, these are both great tools used to convey the suspenseful mood, nonetheless, there are other great ways to show theme. Dramatic irony and lighting are both used to show mood. As seen in Poe’s short story, "You are not of the masons," (page 4). This instance of dramatic irony where Montresor basically tells Fortunato how he is going to kill him but Fortunato just assumes it is a joke. This conveys the mood of suspense because at this point the reader knows what Montresor is up to and are just watching Fortunato fall deeper and deeper into his trap. Near the beginning of Laughtons film Henry Powell’s silhouette is cast through a window. This is significant because at this point of the movie, the viewers already know that Powell’s character is not a good one and they realize that he will come into the childrens life. Lighting helps conceive the mood because it foreshadows what is going to happen and is overall creepy. Mood can be shown in many ways, as proved by the movie and the film.
Within this plot of revenge, Poe uses irony and symbolism to develop his theme of a man who tries to gain absolution for the sin he is about to commit. Irony in "The Cask of Amontillado" Poe
Poe terrified and befuddled readers with his short stories for over 150 years. Poe has written a lot of short stories, but the two of his most significant ones are “Hop-Frog” and “The Cask of Amontillado.” “The Cask of Amontillado” is about someone’s foolishness that brings him to his own death. “Hop-Frog” is about a dwarf-looking jester <run-on The two stories are both very different in their own distinctive ways, but at the same time they are both very similar. “Hop-Frog” and “The Cask of Amontillado” are more similar than different. These two stories, both have similarities and differences between setting, characters, and conflicts.
The setting is an important part of any story, whether it be a poem or a novel. The setting consists of all the places and/or things surrounding the character at any moment through any literary or visual media. A literary setting is often full of details and vivid imagery due to the lack of visual aids that are present in videos and movies. These details often take paragraphs to describe single settings to give the reader an imaginary vision of what the area would look like. Edgar Allan Poe is no exception to these rules and he clearly writes out the setting for his short stories and poems. Poe does an excellent job of using details to describe the setting of his stories and shows great care in choosing the wording of each description he makes to display his exact intentions for each descriptive setting. In the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Poe, the setting has a direct correlation with the mood in the story. The further into the story you read, the deeper and darker the surroundings of the two main characters get, just like the main plot of the story.
The mood established by Edgar Allan Poe in his short story, "The Cask of Amontillado," plays a crucial role in conveying to the reader his underlying theme. For example, when Montresor, the narrator, st...
Comparing the Narration of The Cask of Amontillado and The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” utilize character responsibilities to create a sinister plot. For Hawthorne, protagonist Young Goodman Brown must leave his wife at home while he partakes in a night journey. For Poe, ancillary Fortunato covets a pretentious manner towards his wine tasting skills, and after being ‘challenged’ decides to prove his expertise by sampling Amontillado. Hawthorne and Poe showcase a theme of darkness but differ in their approach to the setting, characters, and fate of entrapment.
The Case of Amontallido In a psychological perspective, the author’s life is linked with the behavior and motivations of characters in the story. The author’s name is Edgar Allan’s Poe who portrayed his self in his writing. The miserable life of Poe can be measured through “The Cask of Amontillado” in which character named “Montressor” showed indifferent feeling towards his victim. After burying Fortunado alive, Montressor felt bad after burying his victim alive but then he attributes the feeling of guilt to the damp catacombs.
The story “The Cask of Amontillado” is written in first person point of view and this story is fairly simple to understand. This story is affected by the narration when looking at what the narrator's focus is, the narrator’s thoughts or opinions, and how the reader interprets the story.
Poe’s first-person narration style in “The Cask of Amontillado” allows the reader to experience the story from a different level and the ability to look at the story from a different light. An unusual perspective. From the mind of a killer, the narrator and main character making him familiar with the reader. Poe focuses more of the thoughts and emotions of the main character rather than physical attributes of Montresor which made for a more intimately disturbing story for the reader.
Edgar Allan Poe has a style that is dark and morbid. His tone is very gloomy and obscure. The tone of “The Cask of Amontillado” is almost tame compared to the tone of “The Black Cat”, his other work we covered. The tone of that work is almost maddening. “The Cask of Amontillado” tone is very sinister and methodic. Whereas “The Black Cat”, has a pulse to a cadence and rhythm though no clear pattern is established. Poe’s style of writing seems so personal, as a reader I had to remind myself this was fiction. His first-person style of writing is so detailed and intricate it is very easy to become invested in the world he creates. “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Black Cat” both have themes of revenge where the supposed victim is untimely
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe is a short story told in the gothic genre. Although this story was written decades after the popularity of the genre, The gothic genre through its descriptions of the atmosphere as well as its use of grotesque and macabre imagery creates a sense of alienation, chaos, entrapment, uncertainty, and terror in the reader. Gothic literature often deals with themes of death, fears and anxieties, good vs evil, estrangement, and revenge. Furthermore, gothic literature often ends with a sense of moral closure and resolution. The Cask of Amontillado use of gothic conventions can be seen in its setting. However, the story’s unconventional use of irony and omission of moral closure adds to the psychological
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
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is a frightening and entertaining short story about the severe consequences that result from persistent mockery and an unforgiving heart. Poe’s excellent use of Gothicism within the story sets the perfect tone for a dark and sinister plot of murder to unfold. “The Cask of Amontillado” simply overflows with various themes and other literary elements that result from Poe’s Gothic style of writing. Of these various themes, one that tends to dominant the story as a whole is the theme of revenge, which Poe supports with his sophisticated use of direct and indirect factors, irony, and symbolism.
The Cask of Amontillado, one of Edgar Allen Poe’s most celebrated works, paints a very sinister and dark tale of revenge. It is riddled with symbolism of what is in store for Fortunato who has betrayed Montresor in what Montresor perceives to warrant a grievous end. Throughout their the interaction, there are subtleties in which one might think there is a way out, but ultimately greed takes over which leads to Fortunato 's undoing.
Edgar Allan Poe's strong use of symbols throughout "The Cask of Amontillado" is what makes this story worthy of examination. The clever use of these devices by the author to shape this horrifying and gripping short story has made this piece be regarded as a classic American horror story, which revolves around the theme of vengeance and pride.