The classification of themes throughout the majority of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories remain similar, yet also different at the same time. As shown in The Cask of Amontillado, the theme revolves around revenge and remorse, just as Tell-Tale heart revolves around the guilt of killing the old man. However, the differences are present in poems such as A Dream Within a Dream, where Poe creates a theme revolving around the nature of death and loss. The plot helps the reader examine and discover the theme of Poe’s literary work, often through extreme examples such as murder or death. Throughout the Cask of Amontillado, Poe creates a plot line that directly correlates with revenge and remorse of killing Fortunado. This is shown when Poe writes “he did not understand that I was now smiling at the thought of what I had planned for him, at the thought of my revenge”. Likewise, Poe describes Montresor as feeling remorse for the death of the man he sought revenge upon. As shown in the last paragraph, it reads “‘Fortunato!’ I cried. ‘Fortunato’. I only heard a soft, low sound, a half-cry of fear. My heart grew sick.’” The plot of The Cask of Amontillado is shown at the beginning of the first paragraph, where it mentions how Fortunato had spoken wrongly of his proud family name. However, Edgar Allan Poe utilizes different examples of theme throughout his work, …show more content…
The initial theme of the story is directed to be insanity. As the character approaches the man to end his life, the gaze of the raven’s eye sends him into a frenzy, as he believed it haunted him. However, towards the end of the story we can see that the guilt of killing the man is weighing on the character's mind. As shown in the last paragraph of the story, the theme begins to incorporate guilt as the character exclaims “Villains!” I shrieked, ‘dissemble no more! I admit the