Main Themes In Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado

Edgar Allen Poe's brings us a twisted tale of vengeance and horror in "The Cask of Amontillado." Poe's character, Montresor, acts as our guide and narrator through this story. He grabs a hold of the reader as he tells the story from his own apathetic and deceptive mind to gain vengeance from the weak and dismal Fortunato. Montresor's mentality is disturbing as he uses his clever, humor, ironic symbolism, and darkness to accomplish this.

The cast of Amontillado was written by Allan Poe at a time when he felt he was being unjustly attacked. Most critics believe that the cask of Amontillado was written by Poe against his critics in the Mirror. I believe the cask of Amontillado is a story of Revenge and Hatred against some friends whom be believed had wrongfully accused him. A review of Allan Poe as a person and his experiences in life is essential a clear understanding of "The Cask of Amontillado". Hence, I will apply a cultural method of interpretation.

Montresor does this by flattering and acting concerned about the health of Fortunato when really his only concern is killing Fortunato. While in the wine cellar, Montresor says to Fortunato, “Come, we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible. Besides, there is Luchesi-.” Montresor does an excellent job of being Fortunatos’ friend and at the same time convinces him to continue drinking and telling him, “A draught of this Medoc will defend us from the damps.” Montresor was not trying to defend either one of them, his only purpose was to place Fortunato into a higher state of drunkenness. Montresor causes Fortunato to become so drunk that while he was being chained to the wall by Montresor, “He was too much astounded to resist.” “The Cask of Amontillado” is filled with many ironies and also life lessons; such as know who your real friends are. Fortunato thought his real friend was Montresor when, in reality, Montresor was anything but his friend. Not only did Montresor fake his sincerity towards Fortunato, he was also vengeful and very intelligent in his actions to kill Fortunato.

The story “ The Cask of Amontillado” provides various amounts of moods as they walk through the catacomb. In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, the main character known as Montresor, goes through creepy situations and events with the intoxicated, Fortunato. As this story goes on talking about them walking through the catacomb, there’s at most four moods created throughout the story. Those consists of eerie, suspenseful, scary, and dramatic. These moods are to be spoken about when Montresor does something awful to his acquaintant, Fortunato.

Edgar Allan Poe is an American author whose writing style, full of mysteries and macabre, has fascinated generations. However, his works are more than just thrillers and morbidities. The writings of this author often contain other themes such as companionship, family bonds, longing passion, and perhaps the strongest of these is revenge. “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Hop-Frog; or, The Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs” are two short stories that certainly demonstrate a recurring theme of revenge. Poe not only presents his signature pattern of cold fate in both works but also displays the struggle of a lower social class against the higher social class to the extent that it almost hints at a call for revolution.

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, is a story driven by revenge as Montresor carries out his plan to avenge his families “Motto”. Not to mention the families honor would be repaired, by the death of Fortunato. What a “Perfect Season” to put forth his morbid plan; “The Carnival Season, The Season of Madness”. Therefore, there are many symbols hidden within The Cask of Amontillado to explain the emotions of the story, such as, “the period”, “character Names”, and “Fortunato’s Costume”.

I know you've thought about killing someone, but you're too worried about the consequences. In the short story "Cask of Amontillado" The protagonist, Montresor feels hatred toward this man Fortunato and is determined to get revenge with impunity. In "Lamb to the slaughter" a wife unsure of her feelings murders her husband. The stories are similar because the authors both create a effect of suspense while they use different types of irony and conflicts.

Edgar Allan Poe; a famous all American Poet, short story writer and critic. Some of his most famous writings include Raven and The Cask of Amontillado. His writings all include horror or some type of mystery. Edgar did not have the “white picket fence” type of life. His was like riding on a rollercoaster, full of difficulties, but he turned out to be a writing genius. But I think that alcohol, and unsupportive family impacted Poe’s writing style, as well as the difficulties in his life.

Poe’s 1846 work, “The Cask of Amontillado,” details the manipulative and vengeful actions of the narrator, Montresor, including luring his victim, Fortunato, into his family catacombs with alcohol in order to bury him alive. Poe reflects his foster father as the murderer of the story, and shows the sardonicism of his life through dramatic and verbal irony. When Poe was in school, his foster mother died. She instructed her husband to wait until Poe returned home before her burial, but John Allan disregarded this and buried her before Poe returned. Although the real-life event is not as literal as Poe describes in his work, both his foster mother and Fortunato are prematurely buried. The exaggeration of his foster mother’s death is shown

Poe’s childhood trauma of experiencing the death of a loved one carried far into his life – the trauma of experiencing both his birth and foster mothers deaths was later enforced by the death of his wife. Poe’s birth mother, Elizabeth Poe, died when he was young, leaving him to grow up without knowing his real mother. In Poe’s foster family, he had a close relationship with his foster mother, Frances Allan, and he was devastated by the notice of her sudden death. The absence, and loss, of a mother figure throughout Poe’s lifetime contributed to his feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Additionally, Poe’s foster father disregarded his late wife’s request to wait for Poe to return home from military academy for the funeral. Poe returned home to find that his foster mother was instead prematurely buried. The recurring theme of being buried alive is prominent in many of Poe’s works. Eighteen years later, Poe’s wife, Virginia Clemm, died of tuberculosis, furthered the feelings he felt throughout his life due to the death of his mothers. He was especially devastated after Clemm’s death because of their close emotional connection.

Edgar A. Poe’s, “The Cask of Amontillado”, is a witty and daring tale based on revenge. The plot of it though is very simple. Montresor, who carries a grudge against Fortunato for an offense that is never explained, leads a drunken Fortunato through a series of chambers beneath his palazzo with the promise of a taste of Amontillado, a wine that Montresor has just purchased. When the two men reach the last underground chamber, Montresor chains Fortunato to the wall, builds a new wall to seal him in, and leaves him to die. After reading this short story I can’t stop but think that Fortunato has a really good reason to say, “It’s not fair. It’s not right.”

     Revenge can be sweet, but in this case it is just down right grotesque! In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” it talks about a gentlemen named Montressor and how he is angry at Fortunato for insulting him in the past. Montressor will not let this go unpunished, so he thinks up a clever scheme to get back at him. This plan is in a way, ingenious but most definitely insane and crazy.

Edgar Allen Poe is known for the various literary devices he uses in his works. One of the most famous devices he uses is symbolism. In many of his stories, including “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” Poe uses symbolism to further develop each story by the messages he writes between the lines. Symbolism is an important aspect of Poe’s many works, seeing as how it allows the readers to make connections within the stories. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Poe represents symbolism through the title of the short story, the outfit Fortunato wears, and the Montresor family motto and coat of arms.

Edgar Allan Poe is an icon of literature, and for a good reason. Even if you do not enjoy Poe’s gothic, macabre tales, you cannot deny the brilliance of his writing style, and how effectively he uses the elements of English. In addition, there is little to no “fluff” in Poe’s stories—his tales are concise and effective; you could almost call him the Hitchcock of written works. Much like with Hitchcock, the tones of Poe’s tales are an important part of them, as are the settings. Using The Cask of Amontillado as an example, we will explore the tone and settings of Poe’s work.

Edgar Allan Poe is often regarded as one of the most influential writers in history, but not