I- Authors Life Born January 19, 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor Edgar Allan Poe's tales of mystery and horror initiated the modern detective story, and the atmosphere in his tales of horror is unrivaled in American fiction. His The Raven (1845) numbers among the best-known poems in national literature. "The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world." Edgar Allan Poe Early Life With his short stories and poems, Edgar Allan Poe captured the imagination and interest of readers around the world. His creative talents led to the beginning of different literary genres, earning him the nickname "Father of the Detective Story" among other distinctions. His life, however, has become a bit of mystery itself. And the lines between fact and fiction have been blurred substantially since his death. The son of actors, Poe never really knew his parents. His father left the family early on, and his mother passed away when he was only three. Separated from his siblings, Poe went to live with John and Frances Allan, a successful tobacco merchant and his wife, in Richmond, Virginia. He and Frances seemed to form a bond, but he never quite meshed with John. Preferring poetry over profits, Poe reportedly wrote poems on the back of some of Allan's business papers. Money was also an issue between Poe and John Allan. When Poe went to the University of Virginia in 1826, he didn't receive enough funds from Allan to cover all his costs. Poe turned to gambling to cover the difference, but ended up in debt. He returned home only to face another personal setbackhis neighbor and fiance Elmira Royster had become engaged to someone else. Heartbroken and frustrated, Poe left the Allans. Career Beginnings

At first, Poe seemed to be harboring twin aspirations. Poe published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems in 1827, and he had joined the army around this time. Poe wanted to go to West Point, a military academy, and won a spot there in 1830. Before going to West Point, he published a second collection Al Aaraaf, Tamberlane, and Minor Poems in 1829. Poe excelled at his studies at West Point, but he was kicked out after a year for his poor handling of his duties. Some have speculated that he intentionally sought to be court-martialed. During his time at West Point, Poe had fought with his foster father and Allan decided to sever ties with him. After leaving the academy, Poe focused his writing full time. He moved around in search of opportunity, living in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Richmond. From 1831 to 1835, he stayed in Baltimore with his aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia. His young cousin, Virginia, became a literary inspiration to Poe as well as his love interest. The couple married in 1836 when she was only 13 (or 14 as some sources say) years old. Returning to Richmond in 1835, Poe went to work for a magazine called the Southern Literary Messenger. There he developed a reputation as a cut-throat critic, writing vicious reviews of his contemporaries. Poe also published some of his own works in the magazine, including two parts of his only novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. His tenure there proved short, however. Poe's aggressive-reviewing style and sometimes combative personality strained his relationship with the publication, and he left the magazine in 1837. His problems with alcohol also played a role in his eparture, according to some reports. Poe went on to brief stints at two other papers, Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and The Broadway Journal. Major Works

In late 1830s, Poe published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, a collection of stories. It contained several of his most spine-tingling tales, including "The Fall of the House of Usher," "Ligeia" and "William Wilson." Poe launched the new genre of detective

fiction with 1841's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." A writer on the rise, he won a literary prize in 1843 for "The Gold Bug," a suspenseful tale of secret codes and hunting treasure. Poe became a literary sensation in 1845 with the publication of the poem "The Raven." It is considered a great American literary work and one of the best of Poe's career. In the work, Poe explored some of his common themesdeath and loss. An unknown narrator laments the demise of his great love Lenore. That same year, he found himself under attack for his stinging criticisms of his fellow poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Poe claimed that Longfellow, a widely popular literary figure, was a plagiarist, and this written assault on Longfellow created a bit of backlash for Poe. Continuing work in different forms, Poe examined his own methodology and writing in general in several essays, including "The Philosophy of Composition," "The Poetic Principle" and "The Rationale of Verse." He also produced another thrilling tale, "The Cask of Amontillado," and poems such as "Ulalume" and "The Bells." II Relation on his Writings

III Different Literary Materials that influenced the author The young Poe was heavily influenced by the Romantic poets and other european writers(German Gothic, philosophers). Later, he admiredTennyson's natural lyricism. One of Mary Shelley's biographers implies with good reasoning that Mary's sole popular poem has been incorporated into "To One in Paradise" which also seems to owe a lot(and the story containing it("The Assignation") to Byron and Byron's affair with Mrs. Chatsworth. Percy Shelley, Byron in both verse and ideas are part of Poe's first poems, but even then he was showing his originality and argumanetation. Often he would take a poem by Moore and fashion a rebuttal or new approach. His organization would be tighter, more ingeniously organized and musically lyrical. He reviewed Moore and it worthwhile reading that essay. He emulated Coleridge in musciality and vision, also writing about him, and also tried to analyse and advance a theory of poetics and practice in short essays. Poe was of the

type who was deeply rational, in search of answers and the primacy of reason, but much less than Mary Shelley being himself a deeply inutitive poet possesed by his Muse more than possessing it. No easy answers, no emotional comfort in dream or memory. He more honestly faced the drought, the darkness, the weariness of obsessions with happiness removed beyond life. reducred, less flowery, less defined by idea than the sheer experience of poetic emotion itself abstracted and artfully expressed in lyric or powerful stories. IV- Character, Setting, Plot, Climax, Denouement Montresor Montresor (if thats his real name), our narrator, is Mr. Sinister. Hes the guy you dont want to meet in an underground graveyard, or anywhere else. Hes a cold and ruthless killer. He not only enjoys killing, but also thinks its necessary.

As the narrator, hes telling the story fifty years after it happened. This raises a whole host of complicated questions. Well cover the main ones in a moment under Bragging of Confessing, but first, lets look at some other aspects of his character. Fortunato At first glance, Fortunato seems easier to identify with than Montresor. Its much simpler to relate to the victim than to the victimizer. But, in some ways, he seems even more foreign to the reader than Montresor. Part of this is because Montresor is telling us the story, and he doesnt give us much information on his prey.

As you surely noticed, Montresor doesnt tell us how Fortunato hurt him, nor how he insulted him. So we cant really say whether Fortunatos punishment fits his crime. If we get hung up on trying to figure out if Fortunato deserved to die that way, we might miss out on one of the storys biggest riddles: just what are Fortunatos weak points? Montresor gives us his opinion Fortunatos a little too conceited about his knowledge of

wine

but

thats

not

his

only

fatal

flaw.

Why would we want to identify Fortunatos weaknesses? Because, on some level, they probably mirror our own. If we can see ourselves in Fortunato, maybe we can learn something from the story. Luckily for us, Fortunato seems to be weak points personified, so his weaknesses are easy to spot. Here are a few of them, but we bet you can add to the list. Luchesi Luchesi isnt really a character. Hes more of a plot device. He helps drive the action. Luchesi is Fortunatos rival in wine tasting. Montresor doesnt really need to bring up Luchesi to lure Fortunato to his dire fate. The prospect of Amontillado is enough. Luchesi is a kind of insurance for Montresor. He brings Luchesi up whenever he wants to keep Fortunato distracted like right before he fetter[s] him to the granite. But again, Montresor doesnt really need to evoke the name of Luchesi. Fortunato is not only drunk, but also willing to do anything to get to the Amontillado. Montresor is just playing with him, exploiting Fortunatos weak point[s], with a little help from Luchesi. The Montresor Family When Fortunato comments on how big the catacombs are, Montresor implies that all the bodies in the place are dead members of the Montresor family. There seem to be quite a lot of them. This is before we know Montresors name, but its implied that hes a member of that family.

Is our narrator the last surviving member of the family? If so, what happened to the rest of the Montresors? Did he, perhaps, kill them all? Or maybe Montresor is lying and its not just Montresor bones in that massive graveyard. Maybe the Montresors were a family of killers, and the catacomb is full of unsuspecting victims, like Fortunato. Maybe Montresor isnt really Montresor at all. Maybe he murdered the last of the Montresors and then stole their name, so he could use it for his nefarious purposes.

Montresor, if thats his real name, makes clear in paragraph five that he is not Italian (though where he comes from is never revealed). So if hes not Italian, what is his whole family doing buried in an Italian catacomb?

Ultimately, we dont get any concrete information on the mysterious family Montresor; we have more questions than answers. In fact, Poe invites us to such speculations. They enhance the general creepiness of the reading experience, and make us suspect that Montresor, or whoever he is, is an even bigger villain than we might have thought. Setting Time: 18th Century Place : Carnival in Italy Atmosphere: Horror & Suspense Climax Montresor surprises Fortunato by chaining him to the wall, thereby ending the suspense of whether or not Fortunato will get away. Once Fortunato is in chains, we know Montresor's revenge is assured.

Denouement Montresor builds the brick wall, shouts back and forth at Fortunato and tosses the torch into the niche to see if Fortunato is still alive. These actions occur after the climax where Montresor surprises Fortunato and chains him to the wall. At that point the suspense over whether Montresor will or will not gain revenge on Fortunato is settled and the falling action indicates that for both the story and the unfortunate Fortunato, it is all downhill from there. Theme

 Foolishness and Folly In The Cask of Amontillado foolishness and folly can cost you your life. The story amplifies human foolishness and folly to extremes so hideous and cruel they become vices. The Cask only has two characters. By the end of the story, their combined silliness culminates in tragedy and pain for them both. The tragedy is what makes us think more profoundly about their foolish ways in the hopes that we can avoid ending up, even in some metaphorical way, like them. Freedom and Confinement The contrast between freedom and confinement is extreme in The Cask of Amontillado. For one character to be free, another must die. Most of the story takes place in a vast and incredibly foul smelling catacomb, or underground graveyard. Dead bodies (or at least bones) abound. Freedom becomes less and less of a possibility as the characters move into smaller and smaller crypts, each one more disgusting than the last. Such confinement makes both the readers and the characters appreciate the deliciousness of fresh air. Hopefully, it makes us, the readers, think more deeply about what makes us feel trapped, and what makes us feel free. Betrayal Betrayal drives the action in The Cask of Amontillado." One characters betrayal sets off a hideous chain of retribution, enacted below ground in a mass grave. Behind all this revenge and death, the story is about trust. Without trust there can be no betrayal. The story has much to do with the lengths human being will go to feel better when they feel betrayed and the tragedy that comes when those lengths hit murderous extremes. Drugs and Alcohol The only literal drug we see in The Cask of Amontillado is wine. But there are many other drugs circulating between the lines. Drugs, in this story, can be anything the characters want badly enough to do awful or foolish things for. The storys author, Edgar

Allan Poe, struggled with drugs and alcohol. His struggle is carefully woven into this complicated narrative, which can be read as a gruesome allegory for addiction. Mortality The Cask of Amontillado has a frightening fixation on death, corpses, and bones. Edgar Allan Poes last short story, written only a few years before his death, is a precise and compact expression of anxieties concerning mortality. But dont worry Poe injects plenty of humor into all the doom and gloom. And in the end, we all feel a little happier to be alive. Plot The Cask of Amontillado The story is told in first person, so we dont explicitly learn the narrators name until near the end. Until then, well call him the narrator. Here we go.

The narrator begins by telling us that Fortunato has hurt him. Even worse, Fortunato has insulted him. The narrator must get revenge. He meets Fortunato, who is all dressed up in jester clothes for a carnival celebration and is already very drunk. The narrator mentions hes found a barrel of a rare brandy called Amontillado. Fortunato expresses eager interest in verifying the wines authenticity.

So he and the narrator go to the underground graveyard, or catacomb, of the Montresor family. Apparently, thats where the narrator keeps his wine. The narrator leads Fortunato deeper and deeper into the catacomb, getting him drunker and drunker along the way. Fortunato keeps coughing, and the narrator constantly suggests that Fortunato is too sick to be down among the damp crypts, and should go back. Fortunato just keeps talking about the Amontillado.

Eventually, Fortunato walks into a man-sized hole thats part of the wall of a really nasty crypt. The narrator chains Fortunato to the wall, then begins to close Fortunato in the

hole by filling in the opening with bricks. When he has one brick left, he psychologically tortures Fortunato until he begs for mercy and we finally learn the narrators name: Fortunato calls him Montresor.

After Fortunato cries out Montresors name, he doesnt have any more lines. But just before Montresor puts in the last brick, Fortunato jingles his bells. Then Montresor finishes the job and leaves him there to die. At the very end, Montresor tells us that the whole affair happened fifty years ago, and nobody has found out. V- What kind of story Ironic Irony probably doesnt sound very terrifying, but irony contributes hugely to the spine-tingling power of The Cask. You can find irony in every line of the story. Critic and teacher Charles N. Nevi says that its a crime not to talk about irony when talking about The Cask. Irony basically means that somebody says one thing, but means the opposite. A good example is when there is only one stone left to fit into the wall, and Fortunato says, Let us be gone. This is ironic because hed have to be a complete fool to think Montresor is going to undo all those layers of bricks and let him out. Hes hoping against hope.

Montresors reply is even more ironic, Yes, let us be gone. Hes torturing Fortunato with his irony and has been all along. Come to think of it, hes been torturing us with irony, too. We never know if he means if he means what he says.

Irony is a kind of play. We arent talking about a stage production, but rather, the use of language in a playful way. In this case, the stylistic play is twisted and creepy.

VI Reference http://www.shmoop.com/cask-of-amontillado http://www.librarything.com/topic/95000