Download
1 / 9
100 likes | 280 Vues
The Cask of Amontillado. By Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849. American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement.
E N D
The Cask of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan PoeJanuary 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849 • American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. • Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. • He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. • He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.
POE'S INNOVATIVE AND UNUSUAL USE OF WORDS • Words are frequently used for the way they sound, as well as for their meanings. • Poe's rhythm and internal rhyme becomes almost hypnotic in many poems. • The difficult vocabulary reflects the style of Poe's time period. Every important word is intended to evoke a mood or atmosphere in the reader, and Poe aimed for the same effect regardless of whether the work was prose or poetry.
Poe's ability to instill fear in the reader • Poe builds suspense throughout the stories, revealing some facts while withholding others. • The narration is frequently first person, which makes the reader's connection to the story more intimate. • Poe's descriptions are usually Minutely detailed to give a sense of reality to the stories, despite their supernatural atmosphere.
Other ways that poe instills fear • The use of irony and black humor is common. • Gothic elements are usually prominent in his writing: the supernatural, evil animals, and dark, gloomy settings • Poe's depictions of how the human mind works heighten a reader's connection to the story. • The surprise endings provide a reason to go back through the work to look for clues missed on the first reading.
The Cask of Amontillado • The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year and concerns the deadly revenge taken by the narrator on a friend whom he claims has insulted him. Like several of Poe's storiesthe narrative revolves around a person being buried alive • As in "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", Poe conveys the story through the murderer's perspective. • First published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book.
Possible Inspiration A legend holds that the inspiration for "The Cask of Amontillado" came from a story Poe had heard at Castle Island in Massachusetts when he was a private there in 1827. According to this legend, Poe was told the story of alieutenant named Drane who killed another officer,named Massie, by burying him alive.
A more likely, though far less terrifying inspiration • Poe wrote his taleas a response to his personal rival Thomas Dunn English. • Poe and English had several confrontations, usually revolving around literary caricatures of one another. • One of English's writings went a bit too far, and Poe successfully sued his editors at The New York Mirror for libel in 1846. • That year English published a revenge-based novel called 1844, or, The Power of the S.F. • It included a character named Marmaduke Hammerhead, the famous author of "The Black Crow", who uses phrases like "Nevermore" and "lost Lenore", referring to Poe's poem "The Raven". • In this parody, Poe was depicted as a drunkard, liar, and domestic abuser.
