Edgar Allan Poe Symbolism Essay

Poe named the victim Fortunato which means fortunate in Italy. Lorcher declares, “it is an Ironic name for him who will be walled up in the catacombs.” Fortunato is viewed as a complete fool. Another characteristic that Montresor possesses is pride. In the article entitled “‘The Cask of Amontillado’- Irony and Symbolism” the author expresses, “Fortunato, a proud man that boast about his connoisseurship of wines and who finally walks to his own death.” When

     In this story the character of Montresor is revealed through his own words. When he reveals he is going to punish Fortunato for merely insulting him, that he has planned the whole act of vengeance, and that he has been playing as being Fortunato’s friend, we know we are dealing with a deranged personality. His character is also revealed with references to his family. It is almost as if Poe has Montresor’s ancestors tell the reader how nicely he fits into the family tree. His legacy from his family motto “No one attacks me with impunity” and a coat of arms that depicts a serpent whose last wish before death is to poison the foot that crushed it. Does the fruit of ever fall far from the tree? Montresor is as evil as his forebears were. He shows no remorse about what he has done, even in old age. When he says, “May he rest in peace” at the end of the story, the reader gets the feeling he means, “ I hope you stay there and rot” rather than, “I hope you found joy and peace in heaven.”

Many authors often use symbolism to express a deeper meaning. They use the symbols to connect an unrelated thought or feeling into their literary work they are writing. Edgar Allan Poe frequently uses this literary device in his works. Symbols are many times seen in his poems and in his short stories. Many symbols are evident in Poe’s works “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Black Cat.” Because Poe’s works are typically dark, his use of symbols is in a dark way. Although there are many types of symbols manifested in these stories, Poe’s works generally include a symbol that eludes death or the end of something and many include references of sight and vision.

Edgar Allan Poe was a 19th century American writer who is best known for his poetries and short stories.Poe wrote in many genres;however, his most famous works were written in the mystery or horror genre.According to Robert Giordano,”Poe wrote quite a few gothic stories about murder, revenge, torture, the plague, being buried alive, and insanity” (Giordano).Many of his prominent works include “The Raven,”The Fall of the House of Usher,” and ”The Tell-tale Heart.” The spectacular work of Edgar Allan Poe would be commended and acknowledged throughout history.

Later on, Montresor very clearly manipulates and uses reverse psychology on Fortunato pretending to be worried about Fortunato’s health asking him if he would like to go back, knowing that Fortunato would insist on continuing deeper through the catacombs to inspect the Amontillado. When Fortunato continues to have a coughing spell because of the nitre on the walls of the catacombs, he tells Montresor “the cough is merely nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough”(192) the Montresor agrees with him, a clear example of Poe using irony to again foreshadow Fortunato’s nearing fate.. One of the final instances of verbal irony is when Montresor brings out some wine while still traveling deeper into the catacombs to toast to Fortunato’s long life, however what he really means is to toast to Fortunato’s certain and impending

Montresor takes Fortunato to the cellar where he plans of killing him; however, Fortunato is sick and begins to cough. When Montresor tells him to go back, he stubbornly replies, “I shall not die from a cough” (35). This again is very ironic because

Montresor was very cleaver and carefully planned the perfect time for the murder. He had chosen a holyday and decided to release all his servants for the perfect plot. With that being said, Montresor tricked Fortunato into the cask by using his weakness for wine connoisseur for the killing. In the middle of the story, Poe uses a sarcastic tone when Montresor was talking to Fortunato before killing him.

Fortunato is supposed to be a connoisseur of fine wines and is delighted in the fact that Montresor has the Amontillado. Fortunato cannot resist the desire to taste this wine and he is blind to the fact the he has even insulted Montresor. Poe never discloses the exact nature of the insult. On their way down to the catacombs to find the Amontillado, Fortunato has a horrible cough. All the while smiling in Fortunato’s face and showing concern for his cough, Montresor has a plan.

I shall not die of a cough”. The reader again sees Poe’s brilliant use of irony by showing that Fortunato does not expect to perish anytime soon. Finally, verbal irony can be seen when Montresor toasts, “to the buried that repose around us.” This reminds the reader that death is all around them. Later, Montresor toasts

Many would not look to a title of a piece of literature for symbolism. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Poe uses the key word cask as a huge symbol. The word cask refers to, “a sturdy cylindrical container for storing liquids,” such as Amontillado, a fine wine, in this case (Lorcher). Montresor introduces the topic of the wine to his former friend Fortunato by saying, “‘My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day. But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts’” (Poe). Fortunato is extremely intoxicated from carnival festivities prior to his conversation with Montresor, so it is probable that his decision to go into the catacombs with Montresor is not for the benefit of anyone but himself. He sees this journey with Montresor as a way to acquire one of two possible outcomes—free wine or a chance to further humiliate Montresor, especially after Montresor suggests that Fortunato is not capable of distinguishing the Amontillado and mentions the name of a rival, Luchresi (Lorcher). The symbolism in the key word of cask is that it has the same root as the word casket. Poe’s use of symbolism in this regard is often overlooked and written off as mere coincidence, yet that is far from the truth. Fortunato’s love of wine, and the ignorant and easily influenced state the wine puts him in, leads him to make some of his most destructive decisions to not only others, but also to himself. The Amontillado is a symbol of Fortunato’s downfall, or in other words, the love he has for the cask

As a master of short stories of horror, Edgar Allan Poe is knowledgeable, learned and imaginative. He could skillfully manipulate the words in his literary works to create everything people can think of. The masterful use of the symbols, objects intensify the readers’ nerve as the typical elements of horror in Poe’s short stories, and therefore it is also a feature which makes Poe 's stories different from other writers.

Edgar Allan Poe was a prominent writer during the era of Romanticism, but Poe’s poems focused primarily on the Dark Romanticism, developed under Romanticism. The era of Romanticism was commonly described as showing raw emotion, but there was still a conflict in the story. The purpose of Romanticism was for the writer to feel free; there were no rules when it came to this form of writing. Dark Romanticism was looking at the gothic side of stories rather than the heroism stories, which focused more on death, and the flaws of humans. Dark Romanticism also focused on the evil aspect of writings rather than the heroic part to stories. Edgar Allan Poe’s poems are shown more in this type of writing rather than the typical Romantic writings. When looking more into Dark Romanticism readers are able to see how Poe could have connected his personal turmoil to his poems. The University of Delaware’s library says, “Suffering for offenses against God, man and Nature, the hero-villains wander the earth, alone and misunderstood. Their personal torment in a vast universe is emphasized by desolate settings of icebound seas, jagged mountains and bottomless abysses: imagery that would inspire artistic, literary, and musical compositions,” (Dark Romanticism). This quote shows readers that writers during the Dark Romanticism era used their own sufferings in order to make the stories seem more dramatic and almost human. Looking into the poems “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven”, readers are able to see

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) born in the United States was a poet, writer, critic, and journalist recognized as one of the greatest exponents of the Dark Romanticism (Ultan and Olson, 51). Dark Romanticism is an American literary subgenre emerged in the nineteenth century from the philosophical movement called transcendentalism. Dark Romanticism, broadly speaking, rely very little on perfection as an innate quality of the human being, a key idea of the transcendentalists (Howard, 1). As consequence, its characters are prone to sin and self-destruction, since by nature, they are not wise or divine beings. One of the most representative authors of the current is Poe, who is

Romanticism in literature was a rejection of many of the values movements such as the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution held as paramount. For Poe and the writing of the raven was none out of the ordinary for himself as most works that he had produced at the time had a dark theme usually revolving around the death of a loved one as well as never seeing them again. "Throughout his life, Poe faced problems of failed honor and insanity—issues that paradoxically help to account for a literary authority that established precedents and patterns of literature in his home region—and even beyond the South itself. Whether fully conscious of his aims, Poe found ways to deal imaginatively with the inexpressible, the horrors that the mind can conjure, and the dark side of experience—without revealing any more of the inner torture than he wished to convey to his readership. “ (http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/) what the meaning of this is that Poes life was quite hard and this reflected on how he wrote as well as how he felt of the time that he had lived in.in two of his other works The Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-Tale Heart some of Poes more dark and dreary stories often possessed a theme of death and sadness that evoked him in his

Dark Romanticism took a variety of forms, but Edgar Allan Poe was most fascinated with madness, death, and evil. Edgar Allan Poe’s writing style can typically be identified as dark and gothic, yet euphonic. Poe’s predictable style is clearly demonstrated to his readers. Edgar Allan Poe raises the level of dark romanticism in the stories, “The Raven” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” by using symbolism as a representation of death, by creating unreliable narrators, and by using a haunting tone to set the weary mood.