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Comparing The Cask Of Amontillado, And The Tell-Tale Heart

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In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat," "The Cask of Amontillado," and "The Tell-Tale Heart," the author employs the literary devices of unreliable narration, symbolism, and irony to delve into the dark and often twisted aspects of the human psyche, exposing how obsession, guilt, and revenge can drive individuals to commit heinous acts of violence. Furthermore, in addition to the literary devices mentioned above, Poe also utilizes themes of insanity and the supernatural to further explore the depths of the human psyche in his stories. In "The Black Cat," the supernatural element of the cat's reappearance after its death adds to the horror of the story and raises questions about the nature of the narrator's madness. In "The Cask of Amontillado," …show more content…

In "The Black Cat," the cat is a central symbol, representing the narrator's guilt and descent into madness. The cat starts off as a beloved pet, but as the narrator's mental state deteriorates, he comes to see the cat as an evil presence. The cat's reappearance after the narrator kills it adds to the overall sense of horror in the story. In addition, the image of the cat with a noose around its neck is a powerful symbol of the narrator's guilt. In "The Cask of Amontillado," the titular cask represents Fortunato's fate. The reader knows that Fortunato is being led to his death, but Fortunato himself is oblivious to this fact. The cask, along with the catacombs, creates a sense of foreboding and impending doom. The image of the cask being sealed shut is a powerful symbol of Fortunato's fate. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the old man's eye is a prominent symbol. The narrator becomes fixated on the eye, describing it as "vulture-like." The eye becomes a symbol of the narrator's obsession and ultimately leads to the murder of the old man. The beating heart that the narrator hears after he kills the old man is also a powerful symbol of his …show more content…

He also employs weather, characters, and other elements to create a deeper sense of meaning and significance. The use of symbolism serves to enhance the horror and tragedy of his stories and helps to explore the dark and often twisted aspects of the human psyche. Irony: The irony is yet another tool in Poe's arsenal, used to heighten the horror and tragedy of his stories. In "The Black Cat," the narrator's actions ultimately lead to his own Irony is a common feature in Poe's stories, and it is used to great effect in "The Black Cat. ," "The Cask of Amontillado," and "The Tell-Tale Heart." Irony in Poe's works often takes on a macabre form, as the events that unfold are unexpected, yet seem to fit perfectly within the twisted logic of the story's universe. In "The Black Cat," the narrator's attempt to hide his guilt by bricking up the wall around the dead cat and his wife's body ultimately leads to his arrest and execution. The irony of the situation is that the narrator's own actions, which were meant to keep his crimes hidden, end up leading to his downfall. In "The Cask of Amontillado," the irony lies in the fact that Fortunato, an expert in wine, cannot taste the irony of the situation in which he finds himself. He is dressed as a fool and lured Villalobos

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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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Edgar Allen Poe uses irony to tell the reader that the foe of the narrator, Fortunato, is going to die but he doesn’t know it. One example of irony is when Fortunato says, “‘the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough’”(Poe, 36). This is an example of situational irony because Fortunato doesn’t know, but when he said that the cough will not kill him, it might lead him to his death when the catacombs he will be sealed in will make his cough deadly. This use of situational irony conveys the theme because even from one insult from Fortunato drove the narrator to take revenge by killing him and he has a dark perspective of how he is going to end Fortunato’s life by making him suffer.

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Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado” is the narrative of a man named Montresor who seeks vengeance against a man named Fortunato. Fortunato insults Montresor. Next, Montresor meet Fortunato at a carnival, eventually luring him into the catacombs of his home to bury Fortunato alive. Moreover, different types of irony are portrayed in this short story. Dramatic irony consists of the character in the story knowing less about his or her situation than the reader.

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The author Edgar Allen Poe was mostly horror works and he inspired horror authors of today. In many of Poe’s works, he features an animal that is usually darker in color, that usually represents the main character’s deteriorating mindset because of the way they react to the animals, like speaking to the animal, thinking they are talking to them and thinking the animal is taunting them with its presence. His use of darker and less popular animals shows his character’s growing madness within them, he shows this deterioration through a cat, a raven, and a serpent. In his work, “The Black Cat,” he uses cats to show the growing insanity of the main character.

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Poe creates mystery and suspense through the use of “Supernatural Occurrences”; however, it has been most effective in The Black Cat because the man has been haunted by his cat for a period of time and the first cat constantly shows “Supernatural Occurrences” after it dies. Mystery and suspense has been most effective in The Black Cat because it best uses “Supernatural Occurrences”, it adds revenge to the plot, and it uses “Omens, portents, visions”. Mystery and suspense proves to be most effective in The Black Cat because the story best conveys “Supernatural Occurrences”. The Black Cat tells a story about an alcoholic man who struggles with his addiction and ends up killing his cat Pluto. His cat haunts him in many ways after it’s death.

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Also, when reading “ The Black Cat”, Poe will not keep the reader up-to-date with the natural world. He likes to keep his readers guessing. This alone makes the narrator unreliable. When the Black Cat came back after the narrator killed it, both he and the reader were very shocked.

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“Goaded by the interference into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the ax in her brain.” (Black cat 24) Madness is one of three main stylistic devices that analyze the writing style of Poe. The other two are point of view and dramatic irony. Poe always has this essence of madness in his writings. In “The Black Cat” the protagonist kills his wife (Poe 24) and deliberately cuts one of his first cat’s eyes from the socket.

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Without the use of literary terms, stories can be very bland and will not interest the reader at all. Luckily, Poe uses metaphors, symbolism, and irony to create an effective short story. The use of these terms, allow the reader to get easily hooked in a book and urge them to continue reading on. First, Poe uses metaphors, or a word or phrase that is used to make a comparison between two things, to create a successful short story.

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Irony takes place in all of Poe’s stories, and it is very easy to notice what the most ironic parts are in all of the texts too. However, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque of the Red Death”, have the most ironic sequences in them. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator is so confident that he had thought of everything, that he had the perfect plan, but he hadn’t planned for the guilt that would later haunt him after he killed the old man. He ended up confessing his crime to the police and even tearing up the floorboards where he had stashed the old man’s remains. For example, “I admit the deed!

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(Poe 1). Later in the story, readers see the negative impact the cat seems to have on the narrator. The events confirmed the suspicions of the narrator's wife although he was blind to the wariness. All of these texts conjure up tension and thrilling feelings through omens and warnings scattered throughout

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The chilling yet long-revered short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe make use of many literary elements popular at the time. Using many Gothic elements throughout the duration of his stories and poems like catalepsy, the idea of Dopplegängers, and entrapment, he caught the attention and interest of his readers almost instantly. However, he mainly utilizes literary devices, such as symbolism, along with the theme of visions, omens and portents throughout his writing to convey an atmosphere of mystery and suspense; The Black Cat proving most successful by highlighting these themes to add descriptions and connections to the story. Throughout the aforementioned short story, Poe uses symbolism and the theme of visions to convey an atmosphere

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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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In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” irony is applied throughout to help foreshadow future and give more of an insight to the readers, all while adding some humor. Irony is divided into three main types: dramatic, situational, and verbal. Poe uses dramatic irony when he has Fortunato dress as a jester, “a tight-fitting parti-striped dress and his was surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (Poe). The get-up makes Fortunato looks foolish and foreshadows his actions of following Montresor into the catacombs to taste some wine. Montresor even compliments the outfit and says “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met” (Poe), but it was not Fortunato who was in luck, but Montresor who would gain profit of their meeting.

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The situational irony is involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected. In the story, there

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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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