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Comparing The Black Cat And The Cask Of Amontillado

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In “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, the nameless narrator took a dark turn when alcohol was introduced. His alcohol abuse caused him to go from his pet-loving, gentle self to an abusive murderer. After murdering his cat and wife, he wanted to make sure that his effort did not go unnoticed. In “The Cask of Amontillado” the main character, Montresor, used alcohol to lure his friend into his family's catacombs. Little did Fortunato know, Montresor was taking him to his death. Montresor was obsessed with getting his revenge, and it caused him to commit murder. Although Edgar Allan Poe's short stories “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado” both include characters obsessed with alcohol and bodies hidden in the walls, “The Black Cat” proves to be more horrifying due to the abuse and killing of the cat along with the desire for the murder to be known. Alcohol played a large part in both of these short stories. In “The Black Cat” the narrator was an alcoholic. He …show more content…

In “The Black Cat” the narrator did not plan to kill his wife so he acted quickly. The narrator buried an axe into his wife’s brain and she fell dead on the floor.“ Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain” (Poe,”The Black Cat” 5). In “The Cask of Amontillado” Montresor simply chained Fortunato to the granite, walled him up and left him to die. There was no blood or gore. “A moment more and I had fettered him to the granite” (Poe,”The Cask” 143). In “The Cask of Amontillado” Montresor got away with the perfect murder, but in “The Black Cat” the narrator wanted people to know what he had done. He was unsatisfied with the murder going unknown. He did not want his effort to go unnoticed. “ I burned to say if but one word, by way of triumph, and to render doubly sure their assurance of my guiltlessness” (Poe,”The Black Cat”

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Poe’s stories “Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” display the dark romantic theme of a man’s soul by the development of the setting, plot, and characterization. As both stories begin, the initial device used to advance the theme is setting, which remains grim and sinister throughout the duration of both stories. Accompanying these physical details is the plot, each of which includes the murder of an innocent man. Most notably, the characterization of each piece’s narrator allows the audience to fully understand their internal struggle and its final resolution. While “Cask of Amontillado” contains an overall intriguing and unexpected plot as well as setting, the narrator’s characterization proves this story to conclude in a less

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“He had a weak point… He prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine…” (Poe, 360). Montresor use of verbal irony demonstrates that the murder is premeditated. “... the cough… it will not kill me…” states Fortunato who receives “True-true…” as a response from Montresor (Poe, 362).

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Whether is is a bombing, a shooting, or a man driving his car into someone, people commit evil acts everyday. Dark stories are commonly found in Edgar Allen Poe stories, and The Cask of Amontillado is no exception. When Fortunato starts to freak out that he might die he screams. Montresor knows that no one can hear Fortunato’s screams, and shows in this by “surpass[ing] them in volume and strength” (Poe 6). When Fortunato hears Montresor’s screams he knows that there is no chance that he will be heard.

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Telling Tales “The Cask of Amontillado”, by Edgar Alan Poe tells the story of Montresor. Montresor is the protagonist and narrator of the story, thus Montresor narrates how he murdered his friend Fortunato. Montresor lets the reader know that he holds a grudge against Fortunato. It seems that Fortunato offended him in some way or another, and because he thinks the offense is so grand, his friend deserves to die. And, accordingly Montresor plans his friend’s death beforehand with a cold heart.

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He had to suffer from the mental aspect of the descending pendulum. In another one of Poe’s works death is also present. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor, the narrator, plots a revenge against his secret enemy Fortunato. Montresor feels Fortunato has insulted him one too many times. Part of Montresor’s plan is to lure Fortunato down into the catacombs.

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The protagonist gets Fortunato drunk enough for him him to be able to get Fortunato chained up to the wall and then let him die alone in the catacombs. The reader would think this alone would be creepy enough, but Edgar Allan Poe uses diction, setting, and plot events to create a very unsettling vibe. In “The Cask of Amontillado” the main mood would be eery.

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Poe wrote in the “Masque of the Red Death,” “The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men,” (Poe 1). It goes to show to what length people will go to survive. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor's cellar represented the embodiment of death

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In Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor is a diabolical character set on revenge for an injustice he perceives as unforgivable. While the nature of such injustice is never justly stated, it is clear Montresor takes his family motto “Nemo me impune lacessit” (Poe 16), to heart. “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 14). This final injury, although never stated, is the unraveling of Montresor and at length he would be avenged (Poe 14). Hatred and revenge are the driving factors of Montresor’s disquiet and he cannot rest until Fortunato has been dealt the punishment he believes he deserves.

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Edgar Allan Poe’s Impact On America Edgar Allan Poe once said, “words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality” (Poe). Poe’s words were impressing the minds of society throughout the 1800’s. He was growing up around violent events in his youth, such as the War of 1812 and the Battle of New Orleans. He lives through the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, and James K. Polk. Many well-known authors were born during his era.

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The fictional short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe takes place in the catacombs of Montresor’s palace, during the carnival’s climax. The story begins when Montresor, the villain of the story, vows revenge on Fortunato. Throughout the story, the author doesn't tell us what the revenge will be, but his choice of words in the details creates a mood in the reader. The author’s detailed description in the short story creates different moods in the reader like anger, satisfaction, curiosity, and victory because the chosen words connect with the audience.

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In The Cask of Amontillado the foreshadowing can been seen in very start when Montresor is talking to a person and telling about his killing and getting away with if it. The foreshadowing also can be seen when Fortunato and Montresor are getting a vine called “DeGrave” and when they are walking in there there is bodies chained and bones hanging on the walls foreshadowing Fortunato 's faith. In both stories Poe uses well placed foreshadows and they make the reader wonder more of what will happen next and how will the story end. Poes plots are

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846 Words | 4 Pages

But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife … I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan” (Poe). This is very similar in presentation to how The Tale-Tale Heart presents it, not that big of a deal that you did the act. The narrator kills his wife without a second thought because he wanted to kill the cat, but what I take from it is that he does not care about his wife enough that killing her does not mean anything to him, and that is insanity. In The Tell-Tale Heart the narrator does a very similar thing to what happens in The Black Cat, kills someone with no feelings of remorse for a very arbitrary reason.

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The narrator of “The Black Cat” is an alcoholic. By mistreating his pets and wife, he demonstrates how his addiction affects him. Alcoholism itself is an act of insanity because alcoholics see things in an entirely different manner than sober people. The narrator had a sufficient childhood and had a great deal of pets. Once he grew addicted

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In the gruesome short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe a nameless narrator tells his story of his drunken and moody life before he gets hung the next day. The intoxicated narrator kills his favorite cat, Pluto and his wife with an axe. Soon enough, the narrator gets caught and there he ends up, in jail. Although, most readers of “The Black Cat” have argued the narrators insanity, more evidence have shown that he is just a moody alcoholic with a lousy temper.

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Edgar Allan Poe addresses the dark and gruesome side of human nature in his writing “The Black Cat”, which during that time and even now are perceived as radical ideas. This dark human nature is displayed in Poe’s writing as the narrator recalls the happenings of a most erratic event. The narrator, a pet lover with a sweet disposition, in this story succumbs to the most challenging aspects of human nature including that of addiction, anger, and perverseness. To the Christian believer, human’s sinful flesh leads people to do wrong because that is their natural tendency.

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