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Literary analysis edgar allan poe
Literary analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's work
Literary analysis edgar allan poe
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Why do so many people take vengeance into their own hands? Perhaps it gives them a feeling of justice and a way to cope with their injuries. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” the main character Montresor acts out his sweet revenge on an unsuspecting Fortunato. In this story written by Edgar Allen Poe, the author creates a mood of horror and suspense to accompany his theme of revenge. First of all, Poe develops his dark mood through his vivid imagery. Second of all, most authors create mood through their choice of words and descriptive phrases, which include setting and imagery. Poe’s mood would be described as the following: chilling, dark, scary, grim, etc. Poe implores imagery as he describes how the men go down “a long winding staircase” and end up “on the damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresors”. Another way Poe develops his mood is through his characters. The main character in the story was explaining how Fortunato has hurt him a thousand times, so he wants to get revenge by killing him, the topic of death and murder is very dark and chilling. The characters that poe creates in his stories contribute a lot to the mood of the …show more content…
The main setting of the story is somewhere in Italy in the catacombs of the Montesors. “We came at length to the foot of the descent and stood together on the damp ground of the catacombs” (Poe 347). While Poe describes the catacombs it gives a chilling feeling to the readers. Later in the story as the two men are walking deeper into the catacombs the setting gets even more chilling, “at the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris” (Poe 348). As the two men walk farther into the catacombs the setting gets more chilling and the walls are lined with human remains and gives the readers a disturbing
Revenge is the opportunity to retaliate or gain satisfaction for a real or perceived slight ("revenge"). In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor, the narrator, is out for revenge. Montressor seeks revenge against Fortunato and thinks he has developed the perfect plan for “revenge with impunity” (Baym). Montresor never tells the reader why he feels Fortunato deserves punishment. He only says that Fortunato causes him “a thousand injuries”until “[venturing] upon insult” (Baym ?). As a result, Montresor plans to bury Fortunato alive.
Edgar Allen Poe is known for his dark yet comedic approach toward the his theme of his stories. Likewise, Poe’s themes have gathered many fans due to his impression of reasoning in his stories. The author uses thinking and reasoning to portray the theme. Poe’s unique diction comprehends with the theme of the story. Poe has a brilliant way of taking gothic tales of mystery, and terror, and mixing them with variations of a romantic tale by shifting emphasis from, surface suspense and plot pattern to his symbolic play in language and various meanings of words.
Next, Poe mentions the "damp ground of the catacombs," which are a more obvious symbol of death. Eventually, Poe launches into a vivid description of the piles of human remains which line the walls of the crypt into which they enter. At this point, the morbidity of the symbolism is clear, and this symbolism has helped to create suspense.
Poe continues to develop his point that no one escapes death through the setting. Not only does he use the exterior and how it was constructed to tell what precautions P...
In her article, Renee utters that when the thought of vengeance build up in an individual’s brain, it coerces him insane and does not tolerate him to present it a second thought. The first sentence of the story, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge,” clearly describes the whole theme of the story as a deeply enrooted revenge in Montresor’s mind” which is an absolute portrayal of retribution that occurs due to arrogance and jealousy. Author sees himself as a superior individual and was victimized by a superiority complex which is quite visible through the phrases which he wrote in the story that Montressor expresses superiority as showed his victim as a foolish person by attributing weird physical appearance and dress appearance in which he described his dress code of “tight fitting parti striped dress and head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.”
The writing style of Edgar Allan Poe shows the writer to be of a dark nature. In this story, he focuses on his fascination of being buried alive. He quotes, “To be buried alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these [ghastly] extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality.” page 58 paragraph 3. The dark nature is reflected in this quote, showing the supernatural side of Poe which is reflected in his writing and is also a characteristic of Romanticism. Poe uses much detail, as shown in this passage, “The face assumed the usual pinched and sunken outline. The lips were of the usual marble pallor. The eyes were lusterless. There was no warmth. Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity.” page 59 paragraph 2. The descriptive nature of this writing paints a vivid picture that intrigues the reader to use their imagination and visualize the scene presented in the text. This use of imagery ties with aspects of Romanticism because of the nature of the descriptions Poe uses. Describing the physical features of one who seems dead is a horrifying perspective as not many people thing about the aspects of death.
...ontresor's sociable facade, then the catacombs below symbolize the hate within him. Poe gives explicit descriptions fo the foul caverns. They are "insufferably damp . . . encrusted with nitre." The "founess of the air" nearly extinguishes their torches. Poe describes the "white web-work which gleams from these cavern walls." Clearly Poe's desired efect is to expose the evil that consumes from within.
Poe begins setting the tone of the story by describing the gloomy and threatening vaults beneath Montressor’s home. The first description of the Montressor home, as well as the reader’s first hint that something is amiss, is the description of the time off Montressor had required his employees to take. This alone lets us know that some of his intentions are less than virtuous. He describes the vaults as extensive, having many rooms, and being insufferably damp. This description of Montressor’s vaults strikes a feeling of uneasiness and fear in the reader, as well as a fear of malevolent things to come. References to the bodies laid to rest in the ca...
Both stories tell a of death and the fears of our mortal lives and what is to come next. Poe’s short story focuses on two characters that are of the same cloth, two Italian men of some stature and class, but one has insulted the other. Fortunato is on the unfortunate recipient of death and is unaware until the very end. Where his so-called friend, Montresor has tricked him into the dark and scary catacombs where Fortunato will soon be part of all the other remains that are there. Now that Fortunato has learned of his fate, he does something that final shows the fear that he has and in turn strikes fear into his new foe. Fortunato begins to laugh and in such a way that even he hopes this is a joke. The eerie laugh of a scared person just realizing what is happening. The screams are not heard for Montresor has buried him alive. And the last thing that Montresor hears is the sounds of Fortunatos bells on this Carnival outfit. The fear of what Montresor has done and is now living with that knowledge of killing a man would haunt him. Even 50 years later as he tells this story you can feel that it doesn’t feel right. I think that a man who holds such a monstrous secret inside such as feeding death to a friend over something so trifle as to be insulted, creates fear inside of one’s own mortality. In a
In this complete darkness the main character has no idea where he is. Could it be a tomb, or is he in prison waiting to be hanged? The unknown narrator shows fear by the opening of story when he states, “I was sick unto death, with that long agony, and when they at length bound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me.” (Poe 1.) He felt this way every time he would take a drink of what little water was left for him. He would drink it, fall asleep and wake up somewhere else. When he feels the walls are beginning to close in on him and he is going to fall into a pit, he realizes the water he has been drinking is drugged. It is when he stands up he realizes he is in a dark cell with a deep pit in the middle. At the bottom of the pit is water. “And then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in grave.” (Poe 2.) The character begins to think why am I here? Am I going to die here not knowing why? No one gave him a reason why he was taken and put in a dark cell. He knew it was the Spanish Inquisition but as far as he was concerned, he ...
The short story is generally a study in human terror. Furthermore, the author explains Poe use of a particular style and technique, to not only create the mood of mystery, but to cause the reader to feel sympathy for the narrator. Poe makes a connection between the storyteller and reader with knowledge and literary craftsmanship.
The Gothic dimensions of Poe’s fictional world offered him a way to explore the human mind in extreme situations, and so arriving at an essential truth. The Gothic theme of the importance of the intuitive and emotional and the rejection of the rational and intellectual is prevalent throughout The Raven, The Black Cat, and The Tell-Tale Heart. This is coupled with the convention of transgressive, encroaching insanity, ubiquitous in Gothic literature. In The Tell-Tale Heart, a kind of psychological doubling is achieved by the narrator- an identification with the old man at the time of disturbing him in the middle of the night, and a psychopathic detachment, evidenced by the feeling of triumph and elation that precedes the murder in the extract “..so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror”. Hysteria is pertinent in Gothic texts, an...
The story is told through the subjective viewpoint of the narrator who begins by telling the reader he is writing this narrative to unburden his soul because he will die tomorrow. The events that brought him to this place in time have “…terrified, tortured and destroyed him” (Poe). This sets a suspenseful tone for the story. He blames the Fiend Intemperance for the alteration of his personality. He went from a very docile, tenderhearted man who loved his pets and wife to a violent man who inflicted this ill temperament on the very things he loves. The final break from the man that he once was, is the “…spirit of PERVERSENESS” (Poe 514). He describes this as doing something wrong because you know it is wrong. Evil consumes his every thought and he soon develops a hatred for everything. “Speaking through his narrators," Poe illustrates perversit...
But this story is set in a time period where desire for revenge can come from a different number of sources. This list could include a slight against someone’s honor/name, or even a simple mistake that Montresor took in the wrong way. But as the story progress we discover how far Montresor will go in order to extract his revenge. We see him lure his friend Montresor deep in the catacombs beneath Montresor's property and continually convince Fortunato to come with him.
Poe’s most famous poem begins with an imagery that immediately brings the reader into a dark, cold, and stormy night. Poe does not wish for his readers to stand on the sidelines and watch the goings on, but actually be in the library with the narrator, hearing what he hears and seeing what he sees. Using words and phrases such as “midnight dreary” and “bleak December” Poe sets the mood and tone, by wanting his readers to feel the cold night and to reach for the heat of the “dying embers” of the fireplace. You do not come into this poem thinking daffodils and sunshine, but howling winds and shadows. By using these words, Poe gives you the sense of being isolated and alone. He also contrasts this isolation, symbolized by the storm and the dark chamber, with the richness of the objects in the library. The furnished room also reminds him of the beauty of his lost Lenore. Also, Poe uses a rhythm in his beginning stanza, using “tapping”, followed by “rapping, rapping at my door”, and ending with “tapping at my chamber door.” You can almost hear the tapping on the door of the library as ...