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The Cask Of Amontillado Literary Analysis

Decent Essays

Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado” is a dark and twisted story about revenge. On the night of a big carnival event, Montresor who is a wealthy man with a very large collection of wine tempts Fortunato, a wine fanatic, into following him deep down into his family’s catacombs. Unknown to Fortunato, the plan is to kill him once far enough away, in order to retaliate for what he had done. The theme is briefly mentioned at the beginning of the story when the main character Montresor speaks about how Fortunato had hurt him and he vowed his revenge. In the story we never find out exactly what the cause of Montresor’s anger is but we can assume that murdering Fortunato may be extreme. Poe uses careful characterization, a large amount …show more content…

The color black represents the dark, twisted nature of Montresor’s intentions. The fact that he feels the need to murder a friend in order to get revenge shows how evil he actually is. The detail that the mask is made out of precious silk shows the rich and luxurious side of Montresor. It shows a status of wealth and contrasts Fortunato’s jester’s outfit well. These are just a few examples of how Poe made excellent use of characterization to develop the personalities of Montresor and Fortunato. Another tool that is well used in this story is symbolism. The first use of symbolism is indeed in the title of the work. The use of the word cask is symbolic because it pretty much already foreshadows the place Fortunato will end up. If you were to read into the title before even finishing the work, you could infer that Montresor eventually will get his violent revenge. The rest of the story contains many well thought out uses of symbolism such as the placement of nitre on the walls. When writing this story, Poe could have placed a number of items in the surroundings but chose this particular element. Nitre is a mineral that is very often

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