Essays on Amontillado

Edgar Allan Poe, the celebrated American writer, critic and editor, holds a prominent place among the literary circle. He is famous for his excellent short stories and poems, surrounded by an aura of anonymity and obscurity. He can rightly be termed as a Romantic who is often recognized as the forerunner of the detective fiction and science fiction. His personal life endured many ups and downs. The tremors of love and feelings find persuasive expression in most of his works. The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell- Tale Heart, The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death are some ...

“The Cask of Amontillado” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1846. The story deals with revenge, torture and murder and it is set in a catacomb where skeletons might be seen like in underground Paris. The story is also about Montresor’s murderous mind and the actions which let him plot his revenge. Montresor is the narrator of the story as well as the protagonist and the murderer. He is a cold and merciless person who believes in murder as a necessary way to defend his honor. Fortunato mocks him numerous times and Montresor ...

Violence and Revenge

Violence and revenge only hurt people. Human beings are known for their innate desire for revenge, which makes vengeance part of our survival mechanics. However, those with mental illness pose more danger of harming others since they are driven by their subconscious mind to revenge against physical and verbal abuse and could use weird forms in the process. Revenge is often cruel, lustful and insatiable to the extent that a provoked mentally ill person would do anything to ensure they make others pay for physical or verbal abuse. Such acts of violence and revenge pose major problems in the ...

Response #1

Giddings, Franklin. The Relation of the Criminal to Society. Proceedings of the Academy of

Political Science in the City of New York 1(4), 1911, 559-62.

This article asserts that some of the acts that the legislature defines as crimes are not actions that can cause much harm to the society and future generations, but there are acts that are defined as crimes that pose grave dangerous. Accordingly, the author notes that if one assumes that every person who commits a crime is a criminal then it is hard to find a person who is not a criminal in the United States. In this regard, the article presents two kinds of ‘ ...

The story, The Cask of Amontillado, is surely one of the finest works of literature even penned by a creative artist. This literary work by the stalwart author, Edgar Allan Poe, goes on to engage the avid readers and stirs them to the very core with the portrayal of sheer horror that marks the end of the story. This story is about the theme of revenge and shows the male protagonist who is also the narrator of the story trap another character named Fortunato. ““The Cask of Amontillado” remains one of Poe’s most popular short stories and a ...

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, writer, editor and literary critic, and a representative of the literary movement called Romanticism. He became popular thanks to his dark and grim short stories. Poe is considered to be the founder of the detective-fiction genre and psychological prose in literature. He is immediately recognized by his famous poem “The Raven.” But the writer proved his ability to create dread and fear not only in poetic lines, but also in prose. The short story “The Cask of Amontillado” that takes an honored place in Poe’s gallery of nightmares and horror accurately ...

The Cask of Amontillado was one of famous American writer Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. It involves the story of the narrator named Montresor and his arch enemy, at least based on his perceptions, named Fortunato. In the beginning of the story, Montresor was wailing about how he has been irreparably insulted by his acquaintance—referring to Fortunato. An almost clear picture of what type of character Montresor has can be obtained as early as the first few paragraphs of the short story. The main and sub-conflicts in the story were mainly the result of Montresor’s hunger ...

Edgar Allan Poe’s fiction used symbols and intense imagery to tap into the dark and unknown parts of human existence. Hit gothic tales sought to redefine the ultimate human experience by showing the prevalence of horror in everyday life. Normal individuals are driven to rage and madness and they get to commit the most heinous crimes without reasonable justification for their actions. In “Legia” and “The Black Cat”, Poe relies on symbolism and imagery to show humanity’s relationship with nature and death. Poe explores man’s attempt at rationalizing the irrational. This paper seeks to compare and ...

It was the best event I ever experienced in my life – the carnival season just started and it seemed that all the citizens got crazy at one and the same time. They drank wine, cheated on, caroused and hid everything under their masks and costumes. I decided not to fall behind and put on the most expensive clothes that I had in order to have an impressive look of a noble and admired man and one of the best wine connoisseurs. The conical cap with bells completed my costume of motley. At first I wanted to show off and ...

Edgar Allan Poe and the Concept of Death

One of the most puzzling detective writers, Edgar Allan Poe still remains to be a mystery for both experts in literature and common readers. In his stories E. Poe attempted to draw the image of death, an incredible and at the same time an inevitable enemy of the human race. Death is all-powerful as well as the feeling of fear or even horror of a human in the face of death. It is not accidentally that the author places his characters in a space isolated from the world – it can be a torture chamber, well, jail, old estate – where ...

There is never an opportune moment for death. Death occurs when people least expect it. Edgar Allen Poe in his “The Cask of Amontillado” and Kate Chopin in her “The Story of an Hour” talk about how death comes at inopportune moments - when it is least expected. Death is the central theme in both of these works, with the protagonists wishing for someone else’s death. The results however are completely different. Even though the protagonists wish for the other person to die, they really do not have a strong reason for them to die. Montresor talks of ...

Edgar Allan Poe is one of America’s most famous writers, arguably the prince of horror stories. His oeuvre covers a wide range of work, from poetry to prose, the Arab world to 19th century America, and detective fiction to horror stories. His 1845 poem, The Raven, made him a sensation and is regarded as one of the genre-defining works of American literature. His life and career were deeply troubled, but his legacy has enshrined him along with the greats. Poe’s stories are stylistically unique – displaying a huge diversity of elements taken from all over English and world ...

Edgar Alan Poe became a prominent and famous American writer due to his grim and dark short stories and poems. All his works are shrouded in atmosphere of fear and horror that is created with the help of different types of imagery. The short story The Cask of Amontillado is not an exception and pulls the reader in the fearful ambience by means of visual and auditory imagery. Edgar Poe uses imagery in order to convey the feeling of terror, fright, inevitable and slowly approaching death. Richard Painting in his paper Relationships Between Poe’s Imagery and his View ...