How does the author want the reader to feel while reading "The Cask of Amontillado”? Poe wants to feel the unreliableness of Montresor and wants to create the gothic and spooky thrill of stories like his. What techniques does the author use to help you visualize the place, the people, and the events that are taking place within the story? Imagery was used throughout the story to describe the catacombs so that you can picture how dreary and a terrifying place it must be. As well as when Montresor describes Fortunato especially with “the wine twinkling in his eyes”.
When Montresor is ready to go to the catacomb with Fortunato, he puts “on a mask of black silk” and wraps himself up in “a roquelaire.” He wears the mask and the roquelaire because it hides his identity. Montressor is sensitive and did many things to make this murder go smoothly and not to get caught. Secondly, Montresor is trickey. Montresor led Fortunato to believe he was his friend. Fortunato was drunk and Montresor led him to his catacombs claiming that he thinks he has a cask of Amontillado, but needs an expert to taste it.
The title of story plays a big part in deceiving Fortunato. The word cask, which means wine barrel, is derived from the same root word used to form casket, meaning coffin. Therefore when Montresor is speaking of going to the cask he is ironically speaking of Fortunato’s casket (Cummings 2). Along with the title Fortunato’s name is very ironic. In Italian Fortunato means fortunate one, this is ironic because Fortunato is very unfortunate in the story because he is being led to his death and is treated like a fool.
They both have various similarities and differences and these comparisons say a great deal about both of their characters. Now, a key difference between Banquo and Macbeth is that Macbeth is already obviously a representation of the Machiavellian concept. He is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants, in this case, the prestigious title, King. As soon as the three witches give him his prophecy, he is engulfed with the hunger, the desire of power. Due to this unrestrained burst of ambition, Macbeth turns to darkness and he begins to act on his thoughts even though when Banquo asks if he ever thinks about the witches’ prophecy, he denies it all.
This represents his intense desire for Daisy and his hopes and dreams for the future. Fitzgerald uses satire to create irony and ridicule throughout the book, this helps introduce humour such as Gatsby knocking the clock off the mantle piece. The Great Gatsby is a historical snippet into the jazz age, an age of great wealth but also a great lack of morals. This was a time of exuberant and frivolous parties and undeserving wealth and immorality. This is beautifully captured by Fitzgerald.
He subjects the poor characters of his novel to every imaginable evil that man has been wont to commit in order to prove that this could not be the best of all worlds. Secondarily, Voltaire also seems to have other bones to pick. Hardly a paragraph is written that does not contain a sarcastic comment about or outright mockery of some person, idea, or institution. It is a credit to the skill of the author that he is able to present his criticisms with a humor that is as intoxicating as it is relentless and controversial. The sheer number of insults and implications made by the author coupled with a healthy sprinkling of aristocratic inside jokes would indicate that he essentially wrote this book for himself and other like-minded intellectuals of the enlightenment that disapproved of the status quo or could at least appreciate his cheeky sense of humor.
Buried Alive Edgar Allan Poe is methodical in creating a gothic darkness and evil storyline provoking sympathy anger, and back to understanding the actions of evil that Montressor inflicted without impunity. Poe creates fantasy and reality, “his fiction often made fun of what he wrought best: terror tales”, (Fisher xv) with The Cask of Amontillado, leaving the reader to question self on how far would you go to avenge your pride, and your honor. The Cask of Amontillado, Montressor narrates a sinister plot to punish and bury Fortunato alive is implausible, however, understanding how antagonistic Fortunato was towards Montressor and the mass of insults delivered may change the readers mind. Poe uses two unusual settings to create the atmosphere in the story, a carnival at night which initially reads as fun, festive, and happiness and however, if you look beyond that carnivals also create an environment of madness, and chaos which releases Montressor freedom to implement his plan of revenge and his high level of evil in which Montressor lures Fortunato into the family catacombs to die. The first setting in the story of jovial, happiness, and jubilant behavior amongst the crowd allows a sense of freedom for Montressor to move and execute his plan without suspicion from Fortunato.
His cry – WHOS THERE ITH NAME OF BEELZEBUB (which means devil) further develops the analogy of the the relation of the inverness with hell. Being a porter, it is his duty to welcome guests, but here he referes to the inverness as hell, thus referring to Macbeth as satan. As the porter lists of the different scenarios which refer to the crimes committes by Macbeth, such as stealing, treason & greed. The scene continues with some good natured banter with macduff, which results in the breaking of the
The public-houses were just closing, and dim men and women were clustering in broken groups round their doors. From some of the bars came the sound of a horrible laughter. In others drunkards brawled and screamed.” The unexplained supernatural is a regular theme in gothic novels and in A Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian’s bargain with the devil and the magical effect of this on his portrait is the novels most important gothic element. In the first chapter when Henry manages to convince Dorian that beauty and youth is everything and that without these two things a man is worth nothing, Dorian’s subconsciously, in the pursuit of absolution says ‘I would give my soul’ . And for the next eighteen years his wish is fulfilled, not a hint of a crease marks his face.
The Wanton Cynic in The Merchant's Tale The Merchant's Prologue and Tale presents the darkest side of Chaucer's discussion on marriage. Playing off both the satire of the moral philosopher, the Clerk, and the marital stage set by the Wyf of Bathe, the Merchant comes forth with his angry disgust about his own marital fate. Disillusioned and depraved, the Merchant crafts a tale with a main character who parallels his own prevarication and blind reductionism while he simultaneously tries to validate his own wanton life by selling his belief to the other pilgrims. As both pervert reality through pecuniary evaluations on different levels, however, both are exposed to be blind fools, subject to the very forces that they exert on others. As this reversal happens and the Merchant satirizes Januarie blindness, Chaucer reveals the Merchant's blindness, giving him the very significance that he had spent his whole tale trying to deny.