Sebastian Cintron ENC-1102 4/7/14 The Cask of Amontillado: The Dark and Mysterious

Burluck, Michael L.; Grim Phantasms: Irony in Poes Short Fiction. New York: Garland, 1993 Recommended Reading: 500 Classics Reviewed; June 1995 Burlucks article mainly focuses on the irony of the situations that lead to the characters actions as well as how they connect to the plot important reversal at the end of the story. He describes Montresor as a nobleman that after a series of circumstance, and after being embarrassed by his friend, decides to kill him leading him to use a lot of ironic twist and turns to fool both his friend Fortunado, as well as the reader alike. Fortunados name can also be in a way ironic to his fate. Fortunado translates to fortune or fortunate, meaning you have a great amount of luck or are in turn lucky. That is not the case with the character since he ends up chained to a wall, and left for dead in the dark. This article opened my eyes to look for the little details that most would miss in an everyday read and it would make most people think about it for long periods of time. It is not just basic writing; its expert writing, and I wouldnt expect no less from Edgar Allan Poe.

May Charles E.; The Cask of Amontillado An analysis of Edgar Allan Poes short story and the irony in revenge; Edgar Allan Poe. Salem Press. Magills Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition; September 2006. Charles states in his article that the story of Cask of Amontillado is in fact not just a simple revenge story, but a story full of ironic effects, in place of the narration style. Throughout the events of the story, small clues are given to one to make them believe that the story has an ironic effect to it. Such as Montresors banner having the giant foot of a human crushing a snake while the snake sinks its fans into its heel. This irony can be placed on the fact that the foot is Montresors foot crushing the snake that is Fortunado. The sting of what Fortunado had done to him resembles the snake biting the heel, since after many years, Montresor still feels the weight of his action as Charles article states that the story could be of Montresor confessing his crime to someone, and that in turn reveals what he has really felt like. Other examples of the irony in the story include parts of the dialogue, mainly in two occasions. One of them is when Montresor remarks that Fortunado may die coughing to which Fortunado says that he wont die in such a way, to which then Montresor says True, True, almost as if he knew his plan was going to go as he had expected it to. Another example is when Fortunado drinks a toast to the dead within the catacombs while Montresor drinks a toast to Fortunados health. This adds depth to the story and makes the characters more interesting and complex. The article itself showed me what others think of the In between moments that casual readers may ignore on a regular reading session. It makes you think with an open mind of other possibilities and thoughts that may appear in other stories from Edgar himself, and if there are any to begin with.

Mays Kelly J.; Edgar Allan Poes The Cask of Amontillado Norton Introduction to Literature; Shorter Eleventh Edition. University of Nevada, Las Vegas; 2012 The Cask of Amontillado helped me do further research in that the story was always there for further review. Every time I noticed something new, or was made aware of it I would refer to the story to continue my project. Morsberger, Robert E; The Cask of Amontillado: a summary and analysis of Edgar Allan Poes short horror story, Masterplots II: Short Story series, Revised Edition; January 2004. Morsbergers analysis of The Cask of Amontillado focuses solely on one aspect of fear that is present in plenty of Poes other works; the fear of being buried alive. This fear and tension is ever present in many of his other stories and its ever present here in The Cask of Amontillado. At the end of the story, Fortunado suffers the terrible fate of being chained to a wall inside the catacombs as Montresor, a close friend whom he embarrassed, seals up the wall leaving him to die inside all alone in the darkness. A lot of this bears resemblance to other stories by Poe, Mainly; The Black Cat where the story is told through the perspective of the benefactor of a murder, as he buries his victims body in his wine cellar and seals the wall where he placed the body, much so in a similar way as done here in The Cask of Amontillado. The article made me think about a probable message that Edgar Allan Poe himself was trying to convey if he had so many stories of hidden bodies or of the concept of being buried alive. The possibility could be that Edgar was afraid of being buried alive as it probably made him feel closed out and claustrophobic. Either that or he was just afraid of death in general and the fear that he would be buried in the ground alone made him feel uneasy, so he tried to convey that through his short stories.

Mustafa, Jamil M.; Literary contexts in short stories: Edgar Allan Poes The Cask of Amontillado; Understanding literatureLiterary Contexts in Poetry and Short Stories; 2006 Mustafas article talks about the symbols and motifs behind the events of Poes story. The wine cellar and catacombs are seen to connect with the symbolic nature of what the story means, or what these events mean to the characters. Fortunados wine cellar could be seen as pleasure, while the catacombs where his family is buried can be seen as where his honor lies, while its also seen as the place of death, while the torture chamber can be seen as punishment. Another parallel is between Montresor and Fortunado, as they are seen as twins or one and the same. Mustafa states that they are both proud, are connoisseurs of wine, and are aristocrats. But she goes deeper by saying, throughout the tale Montresor echoes Fortunados words. She then mentions the way it employs a similar idea used in another tale from Poe, The fall of the house of Usher, the idea of the evil twin who mimics and distracts the other until at the end when they sever all ties to one, as represented when Fortunado doesnt respond to the last call from Montresor. The article speaks about other types of context that seem interesting enough, but this one caught my attention, in that it speaks about the characters themselves and helps in understanding what the characters draw from and where they are headed in terms of story.