Comparing The Cask Of Amontillado 'And The American Scholar'

Thematically very different, “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe and “A&P” by John Updike are both tales told through the eyes of one main character and one has to be conscious of how truthful and reliable those characters words are. However, while both stories are told in the first person, the reliability of both Montresor and Sammy differ greatly.

Transcendentalists believed in several topics including civil disobedience, simplicity, and self-reliance, but one of the most important ideas is that of the role and essence of nature. Transcendentalists like Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Emerson, and Walt Whitman disconnected from society and secluded themselves in nature, and disregarded the superficial characteristics that are so often noted to find a significant meaning in their lives. Henry David Thoreau advocates escaping the instability of society and delving into nature to understand oneself and to learn the lessons that need to be learned for one to function in the insanity of man’s world and its contrived notions. While, Ralph Waldo Emerson analyze the world and discovers that it

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is a goosebump-evoking tale that follows one man’s twisted plot for revenge. Although carnival season is in full-swing above ground, Fortunato finds himself being lead to his death underground in the catacombs. His “past insults” will ensure that he will never again participate in such feasts and merriment; Montresor, his “frenemy”, will make sure of that. As if the story isn’t creepy enough, Poe uses dialogue and sensory details to produce a mood that is both suspenseful and dark.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were the giants during the 19th century American Transcendentalism movement. Their influential work brought upon shared beliefs on concerning spiritual perspectives, government interference, and the ideology of cultural values in American society. Nature has a multitude of meaning if looked at it from all angles, but deeper within nature is the reflection of what you exert while in it. However they agree on the human condition, the two authors speak with different tones that reflect how nature affects the entirety of man’s spirit. While both Emerson and Thoreau practice the spirit of the human condition, Emerson focused his energy on how “[nature’s] philosophical import [is]…unchanged by man” (215.) where Thoreau implied that we are “subjects of an experiment” (1051).

Nature is a major transcendental value which both Emerson and Thoreau thrive off of. Emerson

Our protagonist, Montresor, has a deep vilification towards Fortunato who is an all-around disgusting individual that has scorned Montresor so heinously in times past as to warrant extreme and extensive punishment in one massive vendetta. Montressor, who invites a drunken Fortunato to his home, relies on cunning deception to exact his revenge. Using Fortunato's love of wine, Montresor is able to lure him into a dank cellar with the promise of a rare Amontillado keg. Excited by such wonderful news, Fortunato drinks more alcohol the whole way down in order to suppress his growing sickness in the damp environment which becomes more intensive the further they descend. Montresor's fake concern only spurs Fortunato further until they enter the isolated chamber. When Fortunato searches a small niche for the supposed Amontillado, Montressor seizes the opportunity and chains him to the damp wall without letting him sober up. Maintaining dialogue with Fortunato the entire time, Montresor slowly seals up the opening with rocks in a frightened and elated haste. Montressor then expresses relief before continuing his life regularly. (1. Meyer/Poe, 727-731) Poe’s use of disconnected characters, foreshadowing, and imagery work together to create ominous scenery and atmosphere which shock contemporary

Emerson, like his student Thoreau, as was a major member of the transcendental movement that occurred in America during the time period. Marked by a focus on the spirituality of nature and

In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery to allude to Fortunato’s death. Firstly, Poe describes Fortunato by stating that he wears a “tight-fitting parti-striped dress” and a “conical cap” (Poe 340). Fortunato wears clothes similar to a clown or jester and gets “fooled” into his own death by Montresor. In contrast, Montresor wears a “mask of black silk” and a roquelaire, a short cloak, both symbolizing and alluding to death (Poe 341). Next, Poe depicts the men’s journey into the “damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresors” (Poe 341). The transition from the carnival to the “vaults” is a metaphor for Fortunato’s fall into the dark underworld (Poe 341). Lastly, “walls of piled bones” are used to set up the scene as the men

During the 1800’s, the period of the life of Walt Whitman, there were several notable writers who felt strong ties to the natural world and allowed their work to reflect this. These included Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson and John Muir and they were all players in the Transcendentalism movement that was coming to life. That theory – that people found their own version of spirituality, often through a connection to nature – is one that all of these great minds espoused in one way or another. But, perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson had the most influence over Walt Whitman. Their views of nature were closely matched and Emerson, already being an admired writer, was someone Whitman looked up to.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, he uses vivid details to describe the setting in order to create a correlating mood. The moods that Poe introduces are brought about in two different settings which assists in the plot development and helping his audience understand the characters. Due to the easy-going and exciting setting of the carnival, Fortunato becomes vulnerable in the beginning of the novel which allows Montresor to lure him into a deep vault. As Fortunato travels deeper into the vault, the mood takes a dark turn.

Edgar Allen Poe (Poe) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (Emerson) are both famed romantic writers and poets from early to mid-nineteenth century. Their works are still some of the most studied and referenced in the present day. Both authors are famed for their writing and ideas, but their fame gained success each in their unique way. The two men had starkly different writing styles, and their views on philosophy were just as different. Both differences are evident when reading the two authors works. Emerson has an approach that based its roots in nature. He observes people and nature coinciding as one and brings out the beauty not just of nature but of life that others may not observe as part of their everyday life. Emerson has a passion for using his writing to better peoples’ outlook and opinion on life through his philosophical ideas. Poes approach to romantic writing is self-centered, and the way he portrays romanticism is in some cases dark. Rather than help the reader and their feelings; Poe writes about his experiences and his feelings through different avenues of writing. Both authors have a common theme in their writing. They both show an importance of self-awareness.

This poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson is an exceptional work of his. Entirely characteristic of his poetic approach, it captures the full meaning behind the appreciation of nature, and it does so in a simple yet effective style. The poem is also, in my opinion, an effective rebuttal to the Puritan critique of the Emersonian lifestyle.

After enticing him with the promise of access to a rare, newly-acquired wine, Montresor leads Fortunato to “the foot of the descent, and [they] stood together upon the damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresors” (2). As a result of the sodden nature of the basement, nitre hangs from the cavern walls in intricate designs. As the two friends proceed deeper into the depths of the family’s subterranean burial chambers, the nitre is more abundant, and the air thickens with moisture, irritating Fortunato’s cough. Despite his ailing health, Fortunato continues to drink the Medoc wine offered by Montresor, and they trudge forward “through long walls of piled skeletons, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs” (Poe 3). Poe develops the setting of “The Cask of Amontillado” by taking “many details from the Gothic tradition: the palazzo of the Montresors with its many rooms, the archway that leads to the ‘long and winding staircase’ down to the catacombs, the damp and dark passageway hanging with moss and dripping moisture” (54).

The setting of The Cask of Amontillado factors into the criticism. The beginning setting describes the carnival. A place of “supreme madness”(Poe 2) was in full swing. Reading on the setting grows darker, damper, and colder. As they journey through the catacomb, Montresor and Fortunato move into smaller and smaller—and fouler and fouler—spaces. This suggest that, as they move father away from open air, they are also

Nature and wilderness were very important ideas to some extant for St. John de Crevecoeur and Ralph Waldo Emerson, each had their own opinions and ideas that contrasted against each other and were somewhat similar to each other. Emerson who valued it and looked at the nature as something to proud of had used it many times in his works as examples and that we are part of nature as well and make whatever choices from it as it can from us. While Crevecoeur believes that in every land it has its own form of culture as it does its own kind of nature, and describes how the land and nature was then and how it will be giving details of it in his pieces of work. How they use and see nature is described equally important in both their works “the American Scholar” and “What is an American” but shows how different their views really are in them.