One of the main characteristics of Edgar Allan Poe’s works are an artistic disclosure and analysis of the human psyche and the research of how human psychology determines people’s actions. The author considered the human personality not in the aspects of its morality, neither of its philosophical views, nor of the activity of political consciousness, but in the most difficult aspect – psychology. The prose heritage of Poe is mostly represented by his “scary” short stories, which include such tales as “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Oval Portrait”, “Ligeia”, “The Masque of the Red Death”, etc. “The Cask of Amontillado” also belongs to Poe’s arabesques heritage. In this tale the writer embodies the idea of such destructive feeling as a thirst for revenge that in “The Cask of Amontillado” becomes the main motive for the murder.
“The Cask of Amontillado” is a short story that was first published in November, 1846 in “Godey’s Lady’s Book” (“The Cask of Amontillado” The Poe Encyclopedia 64). It is considered that Poe’s tale partly autobiographical since it reflects the author’s desire to punish some anonymous author who published the article in “Evening Mirror” (New York) from May 1846 blaming Poe for “creating a great sensation [of disgust] throughout the country” (“The Cask of Amontillado” The Poe Encyclopedia 64). Poe thus was insulted by this article and embodied the idea of revenge in his one of the most popular tale. In “The Cask of Amontillado” the plot in its common understanding is missed; the reader follows the events due to the monologue of the main hero Montresor who from the beginning of the story makes it clear that he is offended by numerous insults of Fortunato and wants to punish him.
“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 3) – this is the first sentence of Poe’s short story that determines itself the main theme of the work. As in most of Poe’s tales, the theme of “The Cask of Amontillado” is inextricably linked to the psychology of human specific behavior and his motives for certain actions. Revenge here turns into the main theme of the story, the mental problem of Montresor, which destroy him from the inside, and finally becomes the primary motive for the murder. “Nemo me impune lacessit” (Poe 6) – it is the Montresor’s family motto that means “No one insults me without punishment”, and the reader follows the commitment of the perfect, thought-out and prepared crime that is directed to the punishment of the offender. And according to Poe, the severest punishment that one human can inflict to another is death, sudden and violent death, that is why main hero walls up his victim alive. The method and the place of murder, the gloomy Montresor’s monologue throughout the whole story and a mystery designate the author’s style of the tale – “a complex story that combines a confessional style with gothic elements to produce a work of psychological intensity”(Sova 40) . The gothic style of “The Cask of Amontillado” has its impact on the content of a story (desire to punish and murder as a result), on the chosen place where the events occur (catacombs), and on the method of the killing (walling up). Critiques claim that the influence of “The Cask of Amontillado” on the whole gothic tale cannot be denied (The Cask of Amontillado” The Poe Encyclopedia 65).
Montresor, the narrator, tells the story of his crime 50 years after the occurrence, and it seems that the crime that he has committed against Fortunato is also becomes the crime against himself (Sova 46). He is extremely obsessed with the desire of revenge, and then he seems to become obsessed with the crime that he has committed. Fortunato, the second hero of the story and the victim, is represented to the reader as drunk wine connoisseur who loves masquerades and alcohol, though he is known as a respected man. The names Montresor and Fortunato expresses one of the symbols of the story since they mean “my treasure” and “the fortunate one” respectively, however, Montresor is the murder and Fortunato is the victim (Sova 45; Lorcher “Symbolism And Irony in ‘The Cask of Amontillado’”). Another symbol is represented by the setting – the narrator tells that the following events occur “during the supreme madness of carnival season”(Poe 3) that expresses the deep sorrow of Montresor’s soul that thirst for revenge. All symbols of “The Cask of Amontillado” are designed to stress the gothic style of the story and express the idea of the revenge as the main motive for the murder.
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story of one man who desires to commit the revenge over his abuser, although the insults itself are unknown for the reader. This tale, like most of the author’s works, refers to the human psychology and emphasizes the idea of how mental condition of one man can cause the crime and be the motive for the murder, Poe “brought in a psychological element that makes his brand of Gothicism all more horrifying – and personal – because it addresses the issues of a tortured mind” (Poe 24). The gothic style of the story is embodied in symbols, characters, setting and speeches of the main heroes, and altogether they realize the main theme of the tale.
Works cited
Lorcher, Trent. “Symbolism And Irony in ‘The Cask of Amontillado’”. Bright Education, n. p., 17 Oct. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. Creative short stories. Wisconsin: The Creative Company, 2008. Print.
Sova, Dawn B. Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. Print.
“The Cask of Amontillado”. The Poe Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997. Print.
