The Cask Of Amontillado

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Michael Z. Lowe ENG-131 FJT05 Paper #2 December 1, 2011 The Cask of Amontillado Throughout short stories there is always some kind of in depth meaning buried beneath the words. Authors use many different strategies to convey a message within the text. If you have read older short stories, you have probably ran into some that take place in a time that you are not familiar with and don’t understand some of the words or phrases used in the story. This is because you are not from this time and are not accustomed to that way of life. Even though things are not understood when the story is read but if research is done you can usually find that the author has used some kind of historical context to further display the story’s message. In the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allan Poe portrays a lot of historical context within the text. In fact, it is one of the main ways that Poe has been able to create this fictional story. He has used many different ways to insert this historical context into the story. The first time you read this story you will probably not understand a lot of what is going on or what they are talking about because the time frame that the story took place in is very different of that today. We will take a look at the many ways that Edgar Poe was able to use this historical context to foreshadow or hint towards his ultimate message. One of the first things that we notice in the story is the item that Montressor has caught Fortunado’s attention with. The Amontillado. Amontillado is a fine dry sherry wine that originated from Montillado, Spain, hence the name (Reynolds 95). This wine is an interest to wine connoisseur because of the rarity due to its complex recipe. This is one thing that would only be understood if you were familiar with rare wines. Amontillado is used in the story to allow Fortunado to follow
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