The Cask of Amontillado When we start to speak about Edgar Alan Poe, we need to speak about his creative works, the period of his activity as a writer, about his famous short-story The Cask of Amontillado (1846), – one of the most famous short-stories that defined the basis of his glory and public recognition. This story is not the fruit of his imagination, written in a satirical but rather the adventure of his creative fantasy, allegory of constant dramatic voyage to the unknown world that lies beyond the everyday empirical experience of emotional-psychological dimension. Due to thoroughly developed system of detailed description Poe formulated the principles of literature known as scientific-fantastic experience. Edgar Poe puts the reader into deep reflections and makes him to be lost in thoughts and meditations. Poe manages to create such atmosphere that allows the reader to feel the most trifling details of the case. The beginning of the story brightly describes the atmosphere of reality and revenge where the main character tries to convince the reader that his intentions are honorable in an effort to uphold his family motto (Poes Decoder Website n.p.).
It is a story of premeditated murder and revenge: I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong. (Poe n.p.) The story strikes by the pictures of horror, physical and emotional sufferings, and other realistic features. Edgar Poe takes the extraordinary reality, puts his hero into the most extraordinary place and dwells on his emotions with amazing power of astuteness. The Cask of Amontillado is full of gloomy irony For example, one of the abstracts describes the dialogue of Fortunato and Montresor: “Enough,” he said; “the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me.
The Essay on Edgar Allen Poe Short Story cask Of Amontillado
... she, often enough, is considered mentally ill. In Edgar Allan Poes short story The Cask of Amontillado, the highly descriptive imageries demonstrate how Montresors ... the nature of my soul" (Poe 866), in order to open up to the reader as if he or she can ... constant obsession with pride. Furthermore, by means of descriptions, Poe helps the reader enter Montresors mind to make s/he realize that, ...
I shall not die of a cough.” “True — true,” I replied (Poe, n.p.).
The power of details is a characteristic feature of The Cask of Amontillado as it is one of the most effective literary techniques Poe uses to involve the reader into his literary world. Poe describes his characters with plenty of details and such artful design makes the story breathe. The description of Fortunato is a bright example of Poes style: The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells (Poe, n.p.).
The use of words is powerful and allows the reader see more than anyone can.
The materiality of his fantasy makes us feel all that horror. The fantastic details become so realistic that it seems you can touch them. The unreal events are not only deeply involved into Poes reality but the reality under his pen gains fantastic features. Reading the story we find the classical Poes complexity astounding. The words seem not to be constrained but allow expressing emotions freely, although a little rough sometimes. The use of language is similar to others Poes stories, it sweeps the reader off his feet with the amount of emotions expressed. He describes psychological and ethical experiences in a striking manner.
Edgar Poe resolved the problem both formally and stylistically: he managed to give the idea of a murder with brilliant stylization, where psychological and cultural constructions are mixed together. The story tries to express life using compound sharp-cut sentences and the analysis of emotional nuances of behavior. Poes The Cask of Amontillado is really impressing, touching and interesting. It seems that his story is a strange horror-narration, as far as a lot of writers prefer describing classic stories with happy-end that belongs to easy-to-read literature. Poe doesnt describe the realistic horrors only to scare the reader. He tries to arouse the new attitude towards serious literature and makes and attempt to focus attention on more documented narration that create the element of reliability in combination with deep psychoanalysis and realistic retrospective narration.
The Essay on Review Of Poes Cask Of Amontillado
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge at length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely settled I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. Poes story is a case of premeditated murder; a powerful tale of revenge. In reading this story, it becomes quickly apparent that this tale has been carefully crafted to ...
All these features create the compound genre and stylistic unity. The Cask of Amontillado proves that Edgar Poe doesnt write dull and ungifted works. Everything he describes there is full of drama, emotions and feelings. He is sincere in his emotions. Poes The Cask of Amontillado leaves strange impression: the mixture of dark gothic story combined with love, hate and romantic coloring.
Bibliography:
Poe, Edgar. The Cask of Amontillado.
Retrieved August 21, 2006. http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/ amontillado.html Poes Decoder Website. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”. Retrieved August 21, 2006. http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/cask/ FDIC. Your Rights to Financial Privacy. Retrieved August 19, 2006. http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/privacy/yourrights/i ndex.html.
