The Cask Of Amontillado 'And A Poison Tree'

In the text ”The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and the poem ”A Poison Tree” by William Blake, the authors create a similar theme. The authors created these themes about death, anger, and revenge. Although the authors had an end result that was similar, they did not achieve this outcome the same way. The authors maintained similar aspects of their texts; however, they used a variety of literary techniques to approach and slowly build up the theme. In the short story and the poem, both authors used symbolism and irony in a similar way to reach the themes of revenge.
In the short story, Poe uses symbolism to build his theme of revenge. Fortunato, who is the antagonist in the short story, insulted the main character in the past. After the many insults, the protagonist, Montresor, made it very clear that he would seek revenge upon Fortunato. Montresor even goes as far as telling the audience his intentions for revenge directly from the very beginning of the story. Poe utilizes symbolism and depicts the theme of revenge through the Montresor’s family crest which foreshadows the future demist of the antagonist, Fortunato. Poe describes the crest as, ”A huge human foot d’or, in a field of azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are embedded in the heel.’ ‘And the motto?’ ‘Nemo me impune lacessit.” The Montresor family crest …show more content…
Literary techniques of symbolism and irony are effectively utilized in both texts to creatively enhance the story of develop the theme. These techniques develop overtime to produce an end result of revenge. Through the protagonists’ actions and the result on the antagonists, the theme was continuously built through both the story and the poem. Overall, in the short story and poem, the authors portrayed irony and symbolism within their texts in similar ways to produce an overall theme of