Friday 13 January 2017

The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe



The Cask of Amontillado
-        Edgar Allan Poe


       The story is based on the revenge of an insult. The narrator Montresor tells the story of his brutal revenge with his friend Fortunato. He was his friend but when he started insulting Monstresor he vowed revenge. As he said in the beginning of the story,

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge”

       We can interpret the story with the help of two themes, Insult and revenge and self ego. The narrator has planned everything and then murdered Fortunato so it is a coldblooded murder. They were friends but their emotions were shallow. There was a violence but with planning and coldblooded. As narrator has told the victim,

“Come, you are rich, respect, admired, beloved; you are happy as once I was”

         Poe’s characters are psychologically ill sometimes. In this story we can consider the narrator as psychopath. There are many ways to take revenge or solve the problem. Murder is not the ultimate solution of any problem. The sense of guilt can be considered as the major element of the story as after fifty years he confesses his crime.  The Gothic elements can be felt by the setting of the story, the images of castle and basement with darkness.

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