Horror And Death In Edgar Allen Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado

When the mind is focused on a fixed idea, it is inescapable to think straight. Tragedy strikes because of a fear, an emotion, or something much stronger than the human life. Such monomania leads the vulnerable towards the direction of death. Calamities were commonly exerted throughout the 18th-century gothic literature of Edgar Allen Poe to articulate the horror and pain he experienced. He was emerged in such turmoil, with the death of all the ones he had loved. Poe reciprocated this sadness into his own works. Using the vagueness of the storyteller, he creates ambiguity towards each character’s horror and articulates that adversity is brought upon by a fixation more cavernous than anything one can escape from.
Poe reached a mastery of …show more content…
Montresor is determined to end Fortunato 's life after striking him time after time with insults. Using Fortunato’s weakness of wine, Montresor leads him down a trap to end his life. Montresor 's point of view allows readers to observe his sinister mind, but also introduced an uncertainty of Montresor 's. It’s interpretable that he descends from a noble family and also that he is diabolically intelligent because of his perfectly anticipated plan for revenge. It remains unclear why he is seeking retaliation against Fortunato and also who he is addressing throughout the story. His point of view is not reliable. Because he gives no recognition as to how Fortunato crossed him, readers have no way of supporting his supposedly honorable intentions. What insult would be so detrimental to make such a clever and gifted man have to end another’s life? With no indication of Fortunato 's insult, it 's impossible to be sympathetic to either character. Although Fornuto is the one that is bound to be killed, there is not sympathy that the readers feel for him. Fortunato is portrayed minorly, weakened by the drinks Montresor schemes to provide him. His demeanor and persona, because of the alcohol, manifests him to be weak minded and ignorant to Montresor’s vengeance. Montresor insisted, “THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed …show more content…
Prince Prospero uses his wealth as self-defense to conceal with his fellow superiorities in his abbeys because “The ‘Red Death’ had long devastated the country” ( Poe 1). His narrator 's vagueness leads to confusion, for the country that the unknown plague is destroying is also unknown. The idea immerses readers into an unsure world, closely resembling a nightmare. The disease is described as having “no pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal --the redness and the horror of blood”(8). Immediately into the story, Poe ignites fear and uncertainty, depicting the terror of the calamity. The fear of The Red Death is so intense, that The Prince and his companions don’t mind leaving the citizens vulnerable in the open, not sympathizing each other in a catastrophe. It 's supposed to be a safe hideaway for the Prince, but instead, the people in it are the ones trapped by death. No matter how rich or powerful one is, death is inevitable. The narrator’s unidentified role is important to the tragedy, like in a lot of Poe stories. Rather than taking action in celebrating at the party, he observes the setup of the party and all the components of the elaborate color schemes. Each room displays a different color and the progression is an allegory representing the stages of life from birth to death. The narrator delineates one