Similarities Between The Cask Of Amontillado And A Poison Tree

Revenge
In the story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and the poem “A Poison Tree” by William Blake, both characters want revenge and they both kill their enemy, but their plans start in different ways and times. Both protagonists got revenge by killing their antagonists. Montresor had his murder plan thought out from the beginning while the narrator in the story written by Blake plan of revenge grows throughout the story. Montresor murders to get revenge on Fortunato. The narrator in “A Poison Tree” doesn’t tell his foe that he’s angry with him, which progresses his revenge plan into killing his foe. Montresor felt no remorse when killing Fortunato, but the narrator in “A Poison Tree” walks the reader through his feelings. Both

Montresor plans out an entire plan to kill Fortunato because he wants revenge instead of just telling him that he’s angry with him. Poe writes “Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones. For half of a century no mortal has disturbed them In pace requiescat.” (paragraph 89). Montresor took time to plan out an entire way to murder Fortunato, he made sure everyone was out of his house, he made sure that he did it on carnival night because everyone would be wearing masks, and he piled up bricks, so he was ready to barricade Fortunato in. He even showed Fortunato the murder weapon. Revenge made Montresor go mad. Every time that Fortunato would scream, he would scream back. In “A Poison Tree” the narrator indirectly killed his doe because he has a wrath that he won’t tell his foe about and the longer he doesn’t tell them the wrath gets bigger. Eventually, the wrath kills his foe. In lines 15 and 16, Blake writes “In the morning glad I see;/My foe outstretched beneath the tree.” The wrath grew into a “poisonous apple” and the narrator didn’t tell his foe. Next, his foe ate the apple, which then killed him. If the narrator had told his foe about his wrath, then his wrath wouldn’t have grown. Therefore, his foe wouldn’t have been his foe anymore and he would’ve lived. In both texts, each antagonist could’ve avoided death if both protagonists would’ve told them their angry with them. Both protagonists dealt with their need for revenge by murdering their