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Literary analysis on Edgar Allan Poe
The life and works of Edgar Allan Poe
Literary analysis on Edgar Allan Poe
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A Bad Seed According to the Collins English Dictionary, one that is considered a bad seed is “seen as being congenitally disposed to wrongdoing” (“Bad Seed”). Predisposed insanity is a character trait that Edgar Allan Poe often places within characters. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” all characters have an obsession that drives them to insane actions. In “Annabel Lee,” the speaker is predisposed to his obsessive love driving him to extreme actions. The speaker begins by insisting that Annabel Lee feels so strongly for him that their love is her only purpose for living. He expresses her feelings by saying “And this maiden she lived with no other thought / Than to love and …show more content…
Montresor is desperate for avengement after Fortunato disrespects his lineage “a thousand times” and devises a plan of revenge against Fortunato (Poe 68). Within his plan, Montresor stresses that he “must not suffer as a result of taking [his] revenge” (Poe 68). Montresor’s horror at being caught rather than the thought of murdering another person shows a serious lack of mental stability. Beyond the absence of guilt, the thought that Montresor puts into murdering Fortunato is concerning. Like Fortunato, Montresor is knowledgeable on fine wines, and he uses this as the heart of Fortunato’s demise. Montresor plans out Fortunato’s death, beginning with Fortunato’s “one great weakness: he liked to drink good wine,” so Montresor threatens his standing on wine when he says he will go to Luchresi instead of Fortunato for his opinion on the Amontillado became “they say he knows as much about wines as [Fotunato]” (Poe 68-69). Montresor plays on Fortunato’s pride to regain his own self-respect so that he may lure the other man into a sense of security before he bricks him into the wall. As Montresor builds Fortunato into the wall, he is being filled with the self-respect he had lost with Fortunato’s insults just as he is losing all of the guilt that kept him classified as a sane person before his insane actions. He refuses …show more content…
His mental illness is the only one with traceable evidence; whereas, Montersor’s mental instability is inferred. Roderick’s mental illness is known to be due to his incestuous family line as “the entire family lay in the direct line of descent,” meaning that he will eventually have to marry his sister (Poe 500). Due to the incestuous relationships in the Usher family, Roderick suffers from a “mental disorder which oppressed him” and causes him to act in the odd ways that he does (Poe 500). Roderick’s mental disorder drives obsessions within his mind, which causes his senses to be heightened. The narrator notices Roderick’s odd behavior and observes that “[h]e suffer[s] much from a morbid acuteness of the senses” (Poe 502). The “morbid acuteness” means that Roderick focuses on the items around him so deeply that they overwhelm him and he is unable to leave them behind. When with the narrator, Roderick is able to be most normal, as his sister is not around. It is when his sister is near, that Roderick suffers most from his illness. After his sister’s “death,” Roderick suffers from his acuteness at a ridiculously heightened level. His appearance dwindles to an even worse visage than the narrator first describes due to the loss of his only companion, until the narrator’s arrival. Roderick’s decline in health and
It is constantly seen that people take revenge on each other in the real world so it comes to no surprise that Montresor is taking revenge on Fortunato. Specifically in this story Montresor will feel better if he “not only punish but punish with impunity” (108 Poe). But further on what I found to even more realistic was that this wasn’t normal revenge, this was pure mastermind torture. Montresor knew that Fortunato was sick with Montresor saying “…but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted”(109 Poe) regarding that he didn’t want Fortunato to come down to his vaults, but Montresor true intentions were wanting Fortunato to fight Montresor request of not coming, and it worked. Montresor also knew how well Fortunato was at differencing wine “I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter” (109 Poe). By Montresor exploiting Fortunato’s sickness and skill of wines, Montresor knew that he could get Fortunato in the vaults where he could execute his revenge. At a first glance this may not seem lifelike because there’s an assumption to be made that people aren’t this immoral. But the truth is that the revenge that Montresor conducted is seen constantly in our culture. It’s undeniably real of the monstrosity that was made by Montresor when comparing it to the wicked
Montresor is a man who feels pride in himself and in his family, so when Fortunato—an acquaintance of Montresor— “venture[s] upon insult,” Montresor “vow[s] revenge” against him (1). Montresor hastily decides that he must kill Fortunato, even though his use of the word “venture” implies that Fortunato had not yet insulted him, but nearly did. Montresor’s impulsive need for revenge causes him to formulate a plan to murder his acquaintance. He keeps Fortunato intoxicated by “presenting him…[with] wine,” he “fetter[s] him to the granite,” and he “plaster[s] up… [a wall of] new masonry” to trap Fortunato in the catacombs (39, 71, 89). All of these acts are signs that the need for revenge has made Fortunato insane. A person who has any sense of morals would not commit crimes such as Montresor’s. His impetuous decision to exact revenge caused him to lose his
Is there really a perfect crime? This is the main point in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” The story is a dark tale of a presumably insane man who suffers from, according to him, “the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could” (Poe 75). One of the major factors in telling this story is the setting. The story is set primarily in the Montresor family catacombs, which provides the dark setting, filled with human remains, and this reflects where Montresor commits his crime, where no one will expect. Furthermore, the narration also helps in telling the story. It is first person point of view, so the story is heard entirely from him. Readers will go into Montresor’s thoughts and be curious about why he wants to kill Fortunato so badly. Furthermore, the symbolism of the story is very important and many symbols in symbolizing Montresor killing Fortunato. Finally, the insane Montresor tried to pull the perfect crime but fails; he does not pull the perfect crime, he fails his goal when he realizes he is doing a bad thing.
The setting of a story lays the foundation for how a story is constructed. It gives a sense of direction to where the climax is headed. The setting also gives the visual feedback that the readers need to picture themselves into the story and comprehend it better. Determining the setting can be a major element towards drawing in the reader and how they relate to a story. A minor change in the plot can drastically alter to perception, interpretation, and direction of the message that is delivered. These descriptive elements can be found within these short stories: “the Cask of Amontillado”, “The Storm”, “The Things They Carried”, “Everyday Use”, and “The Story of an Hour”.
The Cask of Amontillado, written by Edgar Allan Poe, is a chilling story about two men named Fortunato and Montresor. The story begins with a narrator voicing his anger and resentment towards a man named Fortunato for “a thousand injuries” and insults. Our narrator sees Fortunato and lures him down into his vaults, or “catacombs,” on the premise of verifying that some wine is a certain type. Fortunato was already drunk, and had a cold. Eventually, the men reach a crypt, and the narrator chains Fortunato to the wall. Not stopping there, the narrator begins to trap him in the hole by filling it with bricks. Fortunato is quiet, until the hole is nearly filled, when he screams and then tells the narrator that it was a good joke. The narrator’s name is revealed to be Montresor. Montresor calmly takes the last brick and prepares to slide it into place, but stops and listens. All he hears are the jingling of bells. Then Montresor puts in the last brick, hence sealing Fotunato’s fate. There is chilling irony woven all throughout The Cask of Amontillado. It isn’t until the end of the story that we discover the tale took place fifty years before. Montresor’s vile deed’s motivation can be largely attributed to social class, fulfilling what he considered to be “just retribution” for the unnamed insult that was given him by Fortunato.
Poe's, The Cask of Amontillado is a story about fear and revenge. The story begins with Montressor's vow of revenge, foreshadowing future actions. "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult vowed revenge..." Montressor had to be sure not to raise suspicion of what he was going to do Fortunato. Montressor knew that Fortunato had a weakness that he could use towards his advantage.
To some of the most fanatic and most creative Poe fans the question may arise: could I reproduce the great Edgar’s works? And if the answer is yes, then how? We might assume that Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most recognizable authors and poets not only of his age but of the whole modern literature, but still we would face numerous difficulties in trying to imitate his writing. Also, placing him into a certain style or literary movement would give us some really tough hours. Poe can be considered either a Romantic or Gothic writer but we could find a number of arguments and counterarguments for this matter. Poe, in fact, reinterpreted the whole Gothic horror style and created a unique, distinct brew of Gothic fiction, Romanticism and his own gloomy mind. On the basis of A Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart, we can deduct that despite the uniqueness of Poe’s works there are some recurring elements in Poe’s short-stories. Generally, if anyone wanted to write a Poesque short story, here are the ingredients: a fine case of murder, a big spoonful of madness and a pinch of revenge.
Montresor takes full advantage of the fact that Fortunato has a soft spot for fine wines. Montresor seeing that the only opportunity that he would have to exert revenge would be when wine is to be drunk in surplus decides to wait until the Carnival Season. We are told of one evening during the season when Montresor invites Fortunato over to his place. The major reason for the invite is to have Fortunato taste a sample of sherry that he had acquired to ascertain if the s...
Edger Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado” talks about how Montressor feels like he was insulted by his friend Fortunato. Also Montressor’s family motto is “Nemo me impune lacessit.”(Allan Poe 362), which means “No one insults me with impunity.”, and Montressor doesn’t want to let his family motto down so he uses it as a reason and make his revenge on Fortunato as a goal that has to be accomplished. Montressor tricks his friend Fortunato which was drunk at the moment, by asking him to follow him to his house and to check an expensive wine that he just purchased to be sure that he didn’t get tricked. Fortunato follows Montressor to his house and went down to the down stairs of Montressor’s house. When they get to the catacombs, Montressor chains up Fortunato and places him in a niche in the wall, and started to build a brick wall leaving him sealed inside to die in the catacombs.
Fortunato exhibits extreme narcissism upon himself and fails to see the bigger picture going on around him. Montresor expended a great amount of time in thinking of a way to defeat his prey in his own world. His target had a weakness of lust for wine, in fact he, prided himself in his connoisseurship. Consequently, too much pride can be harmful according to Jessica Tracy, “hubristic pride is related to narcissistic traits like entitlement, arrogance, and egotism” all which Fortunato exemplified (Oprah). Montresor baited Fortunato into his pleasure “As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchesi” though we never meet Luchesi his character is of lesser rank when it comes to wine connoisseurship (Poe). Montresor was very clever in this quiet deed; he even took the time to provide many outs for Fortunato whether it was concern for his prey’s health or warnings of harsh conditions ahead. Drunk and prideful he could care less about his health during the cold trot through the vaults “The cold is merely nothing… and as for Luchesi, he cannot distinguish Sherry from Amontillado” thus his narcissistic ways are even selfish to his own temple (Poe). Fortunato ignores his plethora of coughs and implies to move forward while Montresor ensures him that his health is too precious but again triggers him saying Luchesi is in a
The Three Unique Characters of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher
The mind is a complicated thing. Not many stories are able to portray this in such an interesting manner as in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". The haunting story of a man and his sister, living in the old family mansion. But as all should know, much symbolism can be found in most of Poe's works. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is no exception.
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.
You were not to be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain (Poe 332)”. This revels Montresor notices that Fortunato is not able to tell Amontillado from Sherry as he is a great wine-lover. When Montresor is coughing, Fortunato is trying to convince him to leave: “Come,” I said with decision, “ we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was”. This shows jealousy and kindness of Montresor against Fortunato at the same time that is quite sarcastic. From this perspective, Montresor envious all of the things that Fortunato has and who is not reconciled to someone surpass him in the status. He mistakenly feels that this is the injury created by Fortunato resulting in his revenge. Therefore, he blame on Fortunato for all fault that he should eradicate him as soon as possible before he become a threatening when it is too late to take any action. Additionally, he does not even regret his choice and believes everything he does is right. This is because he tries so hard to makes an effort to draw Fortunato to his trap and put down his vigilance simultaneously by
?The Cask of Amontillado? by Edgar Allan Poe is a story about two men at a carnival, the narrator Montresor, who is being eaten by jealousy, and Fortunato, a rich drunk man that has a weakness for wine. It is through deception that Montresor achieves his revenge against Fortunato. He did not believe that killing Fortunato is wrong because of the insults and injures Fortunato brought against him. ?The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne.? (Poe, 75) says Montresor. Montresor brought Fortunato down into the catacomb. This was his chance for revenge.