Comparing The Fall Of The House Of Usher And The Cask Of Amontillado

Edgar Allen Poe Essay
Edgar Allen Poe was the creator of the short story. Poe wrote many famous short stories, two of his most famous being The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado. Each of these stories are full of symbols. Poe believed that in short stories, there has to be a single effect and everything must contribute to that single effect. The tone of many of his short stories is mysterious and dark. In all cases, this tone contributes to the final effect in the story. The character of Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher and the character of Montresor in The Cask of Amontillado, both play a major role in the tone and the symbols in the two stories. Usher and Montresor have very similar characters. Three characteristics

Roderick buries his sister Madeline alive, and is only scared that she will come back to kill him. He feels no sense of remorse for putting his sister in a tomb while she was still alive. Roderick exclaims, “Not hear it? -- yes, I hear it, and have heard it… We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin” (Poe). Roderick realizes that all of the sounds he was hearing was his sister's struggle to get out of the tomb. He becomes terrifies that she will take revenge on him. He does not show any sense of remorse for his sister’s struggle. When Roderick asks the narrator to help him take his sister to the tomb, the narrator explains madeleine's appearance. He says, “The disease which had thus entombed the lady in the maturity of youth, had left… the mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip” (Poe). As Roderick is entombing is own sister, she still has signs of life such as color in her face and a small smile. Roderick does not address these strange things, and closes the tomb. This shows Roderick’s sense of remorselessness because he does not hesitate when signs of life are present. He never shows signs of guilt for this terrible act. Similarly, in The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor kills his own friend happily with no regret. Montresor tells the reader, “A moment more and I had fettered him to the granite. In its surface were two iron staples, distant from each other about two feet, horizontally” (Poe). After Montresor gets Fortunato intoxicated, Montresor takes advantage of his mental state and chains Fortunato to the wall. Montresor has had this planed the whole time and follows his plan with no hesitation. Montresor’s remorseless behaviors enable him to easily attack his friend. Montresor builds a wall and traps Fortunato. “I forced the last