In the ten years following 1836, Edgar Allan Poe established himself as a short story writer, writing the well known stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” in 1843 and “The Cask of Amontillado” in 1846. As dark as his nature was, the two stories were equally dark, one about a man killing an elderly man with a creepy eye, and the other about a rich dude killing someone who insulted him. As both of the tales possess main elements of murder and death, both of them also have elements that link the stories even more such as their protagonists, character motivations, and resolutions.
As characters go, Montresor and the unnamed murderer of “The Tell-Tale Heart” are extremely devious. Montresor from “The Cask of Amontillado” was deceitful enough to use reverse psychology on everyone he
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claims to interact with, except for the priest. The most conniving thing he has done in the story was using Fortunato’s pride against him. Montresor says, “‘As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchesi. If anyone has a critical turn, it is he. He will tell me-’”, then Fortunato interrupts, “‘Luchesi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry,’” showing pridefully that his rivalry with Luchesi comes before sensible decisions (Poe 59). As shown in this part of the passage, Montresor masterfully manipulates Fortunato’s desires to suit his own agenda. Laterally, the murderer of “The Tell-Tale Heart” may have been sneaky, but he relied more on his senses for caution on his surroundings and his situation. The murderer show us his caution particularly when he narrates, “Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight with what dissimulation, I went to work!” (Poe 1). Unfortunately for the murderer, he depended on his senses so much that it began to interfere with his conscience and reasoning, diving him mad as it is shown at the very end when the murder narrates, “And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! -- no, no? They heard! -- they suspected! -- they KNEW! -- they were making mockery of my horror! -- this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision!” As these men are the way that they are, their personalities lead to their motivation for their murders. Bluntly, both of the protagonists killed the antagonists for little to no reason.
In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor claims the only reason why he killed Fortunato was because of an insult, that could have just been minor, to hold up his family name. Montresor explains his namesake by showing Fortunato his coat of arms when Montresor says, “‘A human foot d’or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.’” (Poe 61) While the Montresor family’s coat of arms shows that they retaliate to any sort of disrespect with revenge, it is still inhumane and, as far as the setting is concerned, illegal to murder someone due to an insult, however much it may have been done. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the murderer only kills the elderly man because he is bothered by his eye. When the murderer states, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye!” (Poe 1), the murderer claims only did what he did because he was simply irritated and quite clearly mad. Nothing but both of the murderer’s minds can excuse the acts of murder each of them planned out because they were
irritated. With no logical reason to back the murders of Fortunato and the old man, Montresor and the murderer, both had to confess in the end to save their own hides. In “The Cask…” Montresor show from the very beginning that he was trying to save his own skin. When Montresor says, “You, who know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat.” (Poe 58), he is confessing to a priest at the end of his life to “try to get into heaven.” Even though the resolution is shown at the very beginning, it shows that Montresor is not willing to let his murder stand, blatantly showing that he knows what he did was not right. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the murderer’s conscience was so powerful that it drove him insane, leading him to confess the murder he had committed. When the murderer states, “‘Villains!’”, “‘Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the planks! -- here, here! --it is the beating of his hideous heart!” (Poe 4) , he feels so much guilt for killing the elderly man, that he openly confesses to murder. While neither of them would admit to feeling guilty about committing their murderers, they both confessed, both technically out of fear, one not wanting to go to hell, and one afraid the police were toying with him, mocking him. Both of these stories have much in common including, point of view, setting, and conflicts. But as both of the tales contain main themes of death and murder, both of them also have components that link the stories even more such as their protagonists, character motivations, and resolutions. One example was that both of these story’s resolutions were the same, both of the protagonists confessing to the crime out of fear. Another example was their motivations for killing the antagonists, because of irritation. One more example of similarity between stories was the protagonists themselves, both of them being quite devious. The reason why these similar parts of the stories were more significant than the others is because they show the main focus of Allan Poe's’ stories, unreasonable murder.
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.
The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado are two stories written by Edgar Allen Poe in the 18th century. Both of these stories are primarily focused on the mysterious and dark ways of the narrator. Since these stories were written by the same author, they tend to have several similarities such as the mood and narrative, but they also have a few differences. For instance, the characteristics of both narrators are different, but both stories portray the same idea of the narrator being obsessive over a certain thing.
In the Cask of Amontillado, our narrator’s situation is one he is quite happy being in. Our narrator is Montresor, an Italian man rich with pride, and you quickly learn through his narration that he is intelligent, conniving, and extremely sinister. Throughout the story, everything Montresor does is motivated by one thing, his own thirst for vengeance. Montresor explains his actions are a result of Fortunato constantly abusing him and finally going too far, but he never explains anything Fortunato has done to insult him. When we meet Fortunato, he is extremely friendly towards Montresor, albeit a little intoxicated, so much that he makes Montresor’s story of “a thousand injuries” seem unbelievable (Cask 1). Compared to Gilman’s narrator whose spiral out of control was triggered by her forced seclusion from the outside world, it seems that Montresor’s insanity come from inside his own head. There is no evidence that suggest any attempts by Fortunato to belittle or insult Montresor in any way. I believe that Montresor may have been jealous of Fortunato’s success in life, and that is what drove him to vengeance. For example, on their way to the catacombs Fortunato makes a hand gesture of the Masons, a secret brotherhood, which Montresor doesn’t understand. Fortunato ask if Montresor is a Mason and for him to prove it, and Montresor lies and shows his trowel (Cask 5). This proves that
No matter how well executed, a crime of this magnitude will leave scars on the conscience, thus marring it’s perfection. Conflicting psychological emotions and actions plague the journey causing inner conflict ranging between pity and revulsion by the time the narrator concludes. Notwithstanding the shortage of information on Montresor’s life in the ensuing fifty years since Fortunato’s death; it can be surmised from the events leading to the murder that Montresor does, in fact, have a conscience and that it builds upon itself as the action
Murder is a risk. But Alice Sebold once said: “Murderers are not monsters, they’re men. And that’s the most frightening thing about them.” This perfectly describes the murderer in “The Cask of Amontillado”. In this story, Poe Edgar describes a perfectly executed murder by Montresor. Montresor is a smart, manipulative man and a good liar who wants revenge on Fortunado. Using his skills he can lead him into the deepness of his cave and make him drunk. Combined with his emotions, this makes him to a perfect murderer.
Edgar Allan Poe is known for some of the most horrifying stories ever written through out time. He worked with the natural world, animals, and weather to create chilling literature. Two most notable thrillers are “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe was infatuated with death, disfigurement, and dark characteristics of the world. He could mix characters, setting, theme,and mood in a way that readers are automatically drawn into reading. Both of these short stories have the same major aspects in common.
With a premeditated motive to commit such an act, the culprit, Montressor, thinks, constructs and orchestrates a presumed murder against his insulter, Fortunado. “Poe begins by describing, in characteristically precise and logical detail, Montresor’s (and Poe’s) idea of perfect revenge. At the same time, he needed to end his story by telling how his revenge had affected him. When Fortunatosays, “For the love of god, Montresor!” and Montresor repeats, “Yes, for the love of God,” Poe is indicating that Montresor is already experiencing the closure he sought”(Delaney 39) Unbeknownst why he wants retribution, or what it is that his victim has done to compel Montressor to kill him. What is given is a recount of the night under discussion.
In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montressor was calm and collected. He is ruthless in achieving his only motive throughout the story, which is revenge for how Fortunado has offended him. Even after Montressor committed murder, he does not reveal this fact to anyone for over fifty years. This fact depicts Montressor does not feel guilty. On the other hand, In “Tell-Tale Heart,” the man’s personality is described as insane, constantly nervous, and paranoid. He rarely sleeps at all and portrays to be completely lonely. Once the man kills the old man, he instantly begins hearing a noise a heart pumping. The pumping of the old man’s heart, which is getting louder each moment, portrays the killer’s guilty conscience. However, in the the “Tell-Tale Heart, the murderer’s unstable mental health and guilty conscience lead him to bury the old man’s body under the floorboard in an extremely brutal manner. He also confesses to the authority, assuming they can all hear the noise of the heart
Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado" is similar to the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" in that his obsession with consuming the soul of Fortunato influences his every action. However, it is with Fortunato himself that he is obsessed. He feeds off of Fortunato's pain, unlike the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" who's obsession is with destroying a menacing inanimate object. Montresor's entire conspiracy is focused around making Fortunato suffer, and for him to know just who is causing this suffering. This is why he goes to such lengths to put together this intricate strategy. It could have been so much easier to kill Fortunato in some easier, quicker way. Instead, he dedicates himself to torturing Fortunato. He creates a plan that leads Fortunato into the depths of the catacombs beneath his home, and kills him in an excruciating manner.
The power to change is man’s greatest struggles, since a strong influence that lead them to where they are now. It is also the price and journey that both Montresor in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell Tale Heart” and the narrator of the “The Cask of Amontillado”, another of poe’s story. In both story the narrators, both indicate that they want to get rid of an addiction they had that is driving them to madness, and in order to do so they, must do it at any cost. Both narrator clearly plan on their instincts and carefully plans out methods in which leads them to their satisfaction. These stories contain many similarities and differences in the use of tone, irony and symbolism, of the protagonist. Through these characters and their actions,
Poe 's work as an editor, a poet, and a critic had a deep impact on American and international literature. His stories mark him as one of the originators of both horror and detective fiction. Many anthologies credit Edgar Allan Poe as the "architect" of the modern short story. Poe was the author of the two short stories “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado”. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” the narrator has an obsession fixed on the old man’s “evil” eye which leads him into madness and hate, and to killing the man he claims that he loved. The Montresor of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” hates his enemy Fortunato and he becomes obsessed with the thought of getting back at Fortunato, his hate becomes increasingly
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
The first indirect factor that could contribute to Montresor’s vengeful act, and thus the story’s theme of revenge, is the character of Montresor. Montresor tends to harbor feelings of resentment and has a hard time not taking things out of context (Womack). He also plans the murder of Fortunato in advance and devises it in such a way that he will not be caught. In killing Fortunato, Montreso...
Edgar Allan Poe wrote both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” stories. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is about a guy who keeps an old man in a room and watches him sleep for a week and then kills him because of his “Vulture eye”. He got away with it until his conscience got the best of him.“The Cask of Amontillado” is about a guy who's getting revenge on a wine steward by leading him all the way down to the cellar and then bricking him into the wall.He heard the man making noises but he didn’t stop to look back.The theme that both stories have in common is that revenge although seems nice, isnt for everyone.Both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” had a slight bit of things in common but there were more things that were different than alike.One main thing that they have in common is that both ways the main characters killed people were thinking similar ideas and they had similarities in thinking and the actions they used.
Once the police officers had visited the narrator’s house to investigate a scream heard in the night, the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” became quite nervous and started to fall apart at the seams. After being in agony for long enough, the narrator exclaimed to the officers, “Villains!” I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!--tear up the planks! here, here!--it is the beating of his hideous heart”(110). The narrator suffered painfully as he thought he heard the beating of the old man’s heart, and assumed that the policemen heard the loud noise as well. As it turns out, it was the narrator’s heart that was beating uncontrollably due to his feeling of guiltiness after committing the murder of a man he once cared about. It was so difficult for the narrator to handle his emotions after his heinous actions that he ultimately gave into the nagging guilt and pressure in the authority's presence. The narrator’s intense guilt about killing the old man eventually lead to him confessing to the murder and directing the police officers to the dead body. On the other hand, the narrator in “The Cask of Amontillado” displays little guilt about killing Fortunato rather than a full-fledged confession. The only instance when Montresor expresses his guilt in the story is after he sets fire to Fortunato, ending his foe once and for all. When Fortunato doesn’t reply to Montresor in the final moments of his life, Montresor finally acts, “I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came forth in return only a jingling of the bells. My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so”(83). Although Montresor clearly denied his internal feelings by blaming them on the damp catacombs, the reader can infer that his “heart grew sick” because of his guilt.