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Short story analysis essay
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“I have a great idea!” uttered Fortunato as he gazed at the rock that stood to the right of him. “Let’s see if this will work,” muttered Fortunato under his breath. Fortunato picks up the rock and starts hitting the chain that is attached to him, in hope that it will break free. Exhausted, Fortunato whispered “I will never get out, there’s no possible way that this ever snap free!” “Even if I though manage to split my chain in half, how will I break through the wall that stood between me and my freedom?” pondered Fortunato. Fortunato with no hope left, stops hitting the chain, and hears something that catches his ear. Fortunato looks around, and sees the dampness of the area around him, it smelled so bad that it almost made him puke, everything around him seem to be rotting on the floor, and the wall seemed to be growing white-gargantuan mushrooms that covered a majority of it. …show more content…
“Squeak, Squeak, Squeak,” is all that Fortunato heard every few seconds, fearful of the unknown he manages to stay quiet. Fortunato thought that it might be dangerous to make any sudden movements, as he doesn’t know what’s behind the wall and attract any unwanted to his position. “What could it be?” Fortunato thought to himself. “Could it be Montresor coming down here to make sure I’m dead, or is it a friend looking for me trying to save me?” mumbled Fortunato under his breath. Fortunato pondered of all the ways that the noise could either be harmful or beneficial to him. After what seemed hours of waiting, Fortunato decided to take action and wait no longer. “What do I have to lose?” Fortunato pondered, as he was getting ready to take action. “Help
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.
renovating a palazzo his men found the bones of a human. When I got to
First, the journey that Fortunato and Montresor take is from the light and joy of a carnival through an underground tunnel that becomes darker, colder and more poisonous as they continue walking. Poe describes their descent into a "deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame," and talks about the nitre in the air around them as they go deeper underground and Fortunato comes closer to death. This slow, dangerous descent helps build suspense as the reader becomes increasingly aware of Fortunato's murderous plan.
Fortunato doesn’t want to go over “it is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted.’ The vaults are insufferably damp.’ They are encrusted with nitre” (4). Fortunato sensed that Montresor is inviting him over to get back at him for the thousand injuries he has done to him. Montresor plan is to get him in the vaults and slowly as they keep walking through the catacombs, letting the nitre Fortunato is inhaling kill him. As they walk through the catacombs Fortunato starts cough impatiently trying to gasp for air, but let’s Montresor know it is nothing. This shows how Montresor deceives Fortunato into thinking it’s a friendly walk through the catacombs as he is drinking some of the Amontillado he promised to offer him that’s causing Fortunato to have a sever cough. They reach a point in which Fortunato collapses on the ground because it gets hard for Fortunato to breathe, in addition he is super intoxicated. Montresor sees his opportunity and takes advantage to chain Fortunato from his ankle “a moment more and I had fettered him to the granite” (8). While Fortunato is tied up, Montresor builds a wall so he could conceal him in the catacombs “I had completed the eight, the
in the same way, when Fortunato coughs due to the nitre walls, Montresor uses reverse psychology and says, “Come,… we will go back; your health is precious… We will go back; you will be ill and I cannot be responsible. Besides, there is Luchresi -”
The narrator then led the three men all around the house. No evidence of foul play were found. Later, the narrator chatted with the three men. Furthermore, the narrator believed that he heard the old man’s heart beating beneath the floor boards where he hid him after the crime. He felt that the old man’s heart beat grew louder and louder. He asked “why would they not be gone?” He thought he sound proofed the floor well. After questioning the heart beat sound, while still trying to have a conversation with the men, he swung his chair and opened the floor board where the old man’s body laid, but then the sound grew even louder. After praising God, he finally admitted to the crime scene and the shriek that the neighbor
An important element in any story is setting. Authors use setting to convey certain feelings brought on by the character’s surroundings. It also subliminally serves to illustrate the character’s intentions. In “The Cask of Amontillado” Edgar Allen Poe uses the dark, imposing setting to do just that, communicate the underlying theme of the story, being death, revenge and deception.
End of the story is horrifying and shocking: Montresor traps and entombs living Fortunato behind the brick wall. The victim cries to the executioner: "For the love of God"(Poe, 214) but the only respond is ironical repeat of his own words. The story contains very strong and drastic images. Live burial practice is beyond any critic and "was once a practiced form of capital punishment. The historical context of this practice may indicate that Fortuanto wounded profoundly his friend. This wound must have been remembered and reconsidered since the end of the story reveals narrator's very strong emotions: hidden hatred, and cold anger. "Montresor implies that his rival, a member of the Freemasons, is responsible for his loss of status, happiness, love, and respect: "You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was"(Platinzky, par 3). But this is a very vague explanation because the author doesn't give and specific details.
Right before the last brick is positioned, Fortunato doesn’t express the emotion of fear, instead he tells jokes and laughs before becoming silent. He expresses dignity up until his last moments.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of greatest American authors and poets. He is well-known as a master of using irony in his story. “The Cask of Amontillado” is a horror story about revenge of Montresor upon Fortunato. Fortunato believes Montresor is his good friend, but he ends up with being chained and walled in to the catacombs. There are three types of irony used in this short story: verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony. Using these ironies, Poe wants the readers to understand about Montresor’s “friendship” with Fortunato.
The story opens up during carnival season, which is a time of happiness and fun. Even as the story progresses, the reader is amused because of the costumes and because of Fortunato’s drunken state, but the mood begins to change as Montresor leads him further into the catacombs. The “flambeaux” (169) depicts that the catacombs are dark, while the “foulness of the air” (169) is sickening, affecting the reader’s senses of sight and smell and setting the tone as more eerie than humerus. The human remains scattered inside the crypt furthers the dark mood, and that mood turns to horror as Montresor chains Fortunato and begins to surround him with a brick wall. A glimpse of hope and humor is erected as Fortunato cries out “A very good joke, indeed. An excellent jest.” (170) For a moment, the possibility that it all is a joke lingers, until the torch is thrust “through the remaining aperture.”
A shrill scream is heard on the other side of the apartment. Jun almost ignores the sound, but thuds against the wall and bottles falling into a tub follows the scream. Jun pauses the movie he’s watching, grabs his bat next to his bedroom door, and heads into the hallway. Another scream is heard, causing Jun to jump and almost knock pictures off the wall. Jun walks to the other side of the apartment, where Tao and Kris lives, holding the bat close to his chest. A shriek is heard from the bathroom and Jun cautiously makes his way to Tao and Kris’ bathroom. Jun sees light under the bathroom door and hears music playing. Once he’s outside the bathroom, he takes a deep breath and steady’s the bat in his left hand. Jun slams the door open, completely
The first-person narration style of "The Cask of Amontillado" is essential in creating the original quality of the story. The reason this is so important in this particular story, is because when a sane killer, Montresor, is allowed to tell the story from his point of view, the reader gets a unique, disturbing look into the calmness of his mind. The audience can more clearly see how he thinks and feels, which the audience does not normally get in mainstream, commercial literature. The reason the narration style is so important to the tone of the story, is because it lets the reader become personally acquainted with the thoughts and intentions of the main character, and since the reader somewhat knows the outcome from the beginning, it allows certain ironies to make sense to the reader. Furthermore, were it told from a different perspective, I do not believe the story would have been as psychologically powerful.
Poe starts out with a man, by the name of Montresor, wanting revenge on another man, named Fortunato. Most of the story takes place deep in the Montresor family catacombs. As Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs, he chains Fortunato up to a small hole in a wall, bricks it over, and leaves Fortunato to die. Even through the traits of anger, hatred, and revenge, as the story progresses on, Montresor, the main character in “The Cask of Amontillado”, starts to show signs of feeling guilty for wanting to murder Fortunato.
A piercing scream is heard on the other side of the stone wall. It echos through me making me shiver with terror. I can't be here. This can't be real, but I knew who would be next.