In the “Cask of Amontillado” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” both main characters suffer from severe psychological disorders or diseases of the mind. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor’s characteristics and actions all indicate psychopathy. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” The narrator’s delusions, hallucinations, and obsessive behaviors all demonstrate schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
I. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor suffers from an anti-social personality disorder (psychopathy). A. Montresor told attendants that he would not return until morning, and to not leave the house. Yet he knew they would leave. 1. He knew well that they would leave and that his plan was set in motion (killing Fortunato) without nobody having him suspected. 2. Montresor manipulates Fortunato using his love of drink, and eventually lures him into the catacombs, where the “Amontillado is.” B. Montresor binds Fortunato with chains inside the catacombs. 1. When Fortunato has too much to drink and starts coughing from the Nitre, Montresor acts compassionate using reverse psychology, still leading him to his death. “Come, we will go back; your health is precious” (Poe 293). 2. After Montresor binds Fortunato, he says, “I placed my hands upon the solid fabric of the catacombs and felt satisfied” (Poe 295).
II. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator suffers from two disorders, schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
A.
The vivid descriptions in “The Yellow Wallpaper” help to bring the reader along in the narrators decent into a kind of psychosis. It starts mildly, with her describing the color of wallpaper as “repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow” (Gilman 528). As more time passes she begins to see more things in the paper such as “a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes start at you,” and for it have “so much expression in an inanimate thing” (Gilman 592). As the pattern and descriptions get more twisted, we get visual clues of the madness that is slowly consuming the narrator. The color of the paper even begins to become a physical thing she can smell descried as, “creep[ing] all over the house...sulking...hiding...lying in wait for me…It gets into my hair” (Gilman 534). In the end we get a graphic visual representation of her full psychosis
Montresor’s apparent pride in his having gotten away with the murder of Fortunato and the subtle lies he implants into the story only adds to the cold-hearted man who is Montresor.
Moreover, another trait of Montresor's that helps him to plan the perfect murder is his deceitfulness. In the rising action, Montresor tricks Fortunato down into the depths of his catacombs, where he plans to perform the horrible, horrific, homicide . Montresor tells
As Montresor and Fortunato reach the entrance to the catacombs, Poe adds nervousness to Montresor by using words that explain his movements or the surroundings around him and Fortunato. He is so close to murdering Fortunato, and Montresor is feeling a little doubtful on how it is going to go down. Montresor is
The short story, " The Yellow Wallpaper", written by Charlotte Gilman, and "The Cask of Amontillado" written by Edgar Allan Poe, are stories in which the plots are very different, but share similar qualities with the elements in the story. "The Cask of Amontillado" is a powerful tale of revenge, in which the narrator of the tale pledges revenge upon Fortunato for an insult. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a story about a woman, her psychological difficulties and her husband's therapeutic treatment of her illness. She struggles over her illness, and battle's her controlling husband. The settings in both stories are very important, they influence the characters, and help
In the text montresor says”my heart grew sick on account of the dampness of the catacombs”(poe 67). Montresor is saying he feels bad for what he is doing and he feels sick in his heart To where he doesn't want to go through with it. But he thinks to the fact that he has made fun of him. In that case he continued down the catacombs and on with the murder. He thinks he is going to bring justice to himself but he loves the fact that he is taking Fortunato to his death. James F. Cooney says “ He seems to be unaware but the reader is not ,of the gleeful tone of his confession”(Cooney 15 ). At first Montresor acts as though he does not know what he is doing wrong. Suddenly he feels sick and knows he is wrong but thinks to when fortunato mad fun of him and feels no longer
Montresor’s actions lend to his vengeful and manipulative nature. He lures Fortunato into the catacombs of his home to carry out his plans to kill Fortunato. In the first step of his plan, he boosts Fortunato’s ego by saying that Luchesi was almost as worthy a judge of wine as he. Then Montresor tricks Fortunato into believing that there is an
The brain is a strong but delicate muscle inside the human body. However, if this muscle gets overworked it will affect the overall persona of that individual. Depression or any other mental diseases are not diagnoses or setbacks that should be taken lightly. Back in the 1800’s and 1900’s medicine and the knowledge of the individuals that decided to practice medicine was not extensive. Due to medicine, not being as advanced as it is today, a lot of patients were getting treating improperly. The character within The Yellow Wallpaper is a great example of not only a mental disease but also malpractice. Although the main character within The Yellow Wallpaper may be a woman of high social status, the narrator goes mad for the following reasons: she is extremely drugged with improper medicine, she lacks autonomy, and her post-partum depression escalates. Some might say that the story of The Yellow Wallpaper is simplistic, however, it can also be viewed that the simplicity of the story is what makes it complicated and comprehensive.
<br>The way the narrator treats his enemy is one of the clearest examples for ironic elements. When the characters meet, Montresor realises that Fortunato is afflicted with a severe cold, nevertheless he makes a point of him looking "remarkably well". Montresor acts in the most natural and friendly way towards the man object of his revenge, and even praises his "friend's" knowledge in the subject of wines. Also upon their meeting, Montresor begins a psychological manipulation of Fortunato. He claims that he needs his knowledge to ascertain that the wine he has purchased is indeed Amontillado. Furthermore, he acknowledges that Fortunato is engaged in another business (i.e.: the celebration of carnival), so he would go to Luchresi, who, one is made to believe, is a competitor of Fortunato's. To these words, Fortunato is forced by his pride to accompany Montresor to the vaults (where the Amontillado is kept), dissipate his doubts and also to prove his higher status than Luchresi as a connoisseur of wine. In fact, during their way down under in the catacombs, the twisted mind of Montresor, dares to give Fortunato the chance to go back, due to the almost unbearable dampness and foulness rampant in the vaults and Fortunato's state of health. The narrator clearly knows about the stubborn nature of Fortunato, and is
After a couple of drinks Montresor warns Fortunato about the danger of consuming this wine because of the high levels of nitre that it has, foreshadowing for the audience, telling us the venom Fortunato is consuming. When Fortunato starts to feel bad Montresor offers him a drink to make him feel better, this is not an act of sympathy, it's just to keep Fortunato alive until his burial ground; and also to keep the audience waiting for the action to come.
"The Cask of Amontillado" is one of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest stories. In this story Poe introduces two central characters and unfolds a tale of horror and perversion. Montresor, the narrator, and Fortunato, one of Montresor's friends, are doomed to the fate of their actions and will pay the price for their pride and jealousy. One pays the price with his life and the other pays the price with living with regret for the rest of his life. Poe uses mystery, irony, and imagery to create a horrifying, deceptive, and perverse story.
Finally, they reach the end on the catacombs and the Amontillado is near. Then, suddenly Montressor throws Fortunato and fettered him on the wall in a little aperture. He Builds a crypt with a trowel and masonry slowly circumscribing him. Fortunato will slowly suffocate and die. He is almost done laying the stones when Fortunato begs him to let him out and lets him know that the joke was very good but Montressor is not joking. He lays the last block and clamored can be heard through the walls. Slowly the noise died down and Montressor absconded to let Fortunato repose. Of course, then Fortunato perceived what he had done.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” provides an insight into the life of the narrator- a woman suppressed and unable to express herself because of her controlling husband- leading the reader down her fall to insanity, allowing for her inner conflict to be clearly expressed. The first person point of the view the author artfully uses and the symbolism present with the wallpaper cleverly depicts the inner conflict of the narrator, losing her own sanity due to the constraints of her current life. However, while it seems that the narrator in “ The Yellow Wallpaper” succumbed to her own insanity, the endless conflict within herself and her downward spiral to insanity is seen through a different light, as an inevitable path rather than a choice taken as the story develops.
Montresor and Fortunato arrived at catacombs: everything is in place. The Montresor poses as a Mason showing him a trowel to Fortunato. However, what he does not know is that this trowel serves to consummate the crime.
Fortunato does not respond. In hopes of getting Fortunato to respond in some way, Montresor throws a torch into the only open area left. He hears the tinkling of bells. He says his 'heart grew sick ' but only on the 'account of the dampness of the catacombs, ' and he finishes building the wall. Then he says the events happened fifty years