The Cask Of Amontillado Literary Analysis Essay

1207 Words3 Pages

Jamie Lowry
Mrs. Ramsey
English 1302
6 February 2018
Analysis of the Cask of Amontillado Literary elements provide life to written works. They allow the reader to feel every emotion of the character and understand their surroundings, even if the stories are set in long past times or parts of the world readers have yet to see. After reading Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado” and researching the author’s life, one can determine the most significant literary elements of the story includes the irony of the victim’s death, the haunting imagery procured by the author, and the extended metaphor of the victim and the Amontillado. Edgar Allan Poe’s life remains one of the more depressing and mysterious of famed authors. Born January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, Poe never really knew his parents; Elizabeth Arnold Poe was a British actress who died of tuberculosis when her son was three, while John Poe, Jr., an actor, left his wife and son at an early stage in Poe’s life. He was …show more content…

Europe, on the other hand, enjoyed Poe's dark works and horror-filled poems and stories, such as “The Cask of Amontillado.” This tale recounts the revenge of the narrator, Montresor, on Fortunato. During the carnival season, Montresor entices a drunken Fortunato into the catacombs beneath the palazzo with the promise of tasting the Amontillado he has recently purchased. Unknown to Fortunato, Montresor’s every intent bears malevolence. When they arrive at the alcove with the cask, Montresor traps Fortunato and chains him to the wall. Then, he methodically begins to shore up the opening of the alcove with bricks. He proceeds to psychologically torture Fortunato as he walls the chamber up, teasing and taunting him until he places the last brick and leaves his enemy to die a slow, agonizing death deep beneath the earth (Poe,

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