THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

By: Edgar Allan Poe (1846)

Author’s Background: Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.

Characters:

Montresor – Narrator, murderer, type of guy that you wouldn’t trust.

Fortunato – Victim, jester, wine taster.

Luchesi – rival wine taster, used as a distraction for a topic.

Setting:

·         Carnival

·         Montresor’s house

·         Montresor’s Catacombs

Summary

It all started with the narrator describing Fortunato the wine taster, how even though he had a weak point, he was a man to be respected and even feared. Narrator aka Montresor met Fortunato at the carnival and spoke to him about the pipe (barrel) of Amontillado (A sherry wine) at his place. He asks for his advice, as he wants Fortunato to feel like he was the best at wine tasting. Interested, Fortunato takes up on his offer though he was drunk at that time. They arrive at Montresor’s place, he mentions that the place is all to their selves as the servants are out for the night; it was to provide enough time for Montresor to execute his plan. They went down into the catacombs then Fortunato started coughing, Montresor showed concern, offered more wine, and asked him if he would to return upstairs. However, Fortunato disregarded so and was persistent to check out the famous Amontillado. They reached a hole that is the size of an adult man, beside a wall of human bones. Montresor began chaining Fortunato in there and slowly started to fill in the space with bricks. Before the final brick, Montresor mentally tortured Fortunato and finally pushes the last brick.   

Theme:

Secret Murder

Formalistic Approach

The progression of the story and the mystery factor are the two main points of this literary piece.

It is my first time reading this sort of genre but I have already discovered it through other means like games and movies. It was slightly problematic and confusing as to who is talking about what and how it was phrased. The only form of repetition shown here was the use of the “luring” method like in most mystery/crime stories. However, the author has shown a deeper variety and unexpected plot twists for the littlest and unsuspected reasons that you would have to figure out with analyzation which would later make sense after a bit of investigation. The author mostly used metaphorical figures of speech, especially when they descended into the catacombs. There was no clear indication of the relation between the beginning and ending, however, I assume that before Montresor buried Fortunato completely, he might’ve uttered his intentions and hate towards Fortunato contradicting to when he somewhat praised him at the beginning. The tone and mood was the typical happy atmosphere that slowly twists into dark topics and such. The author utilized these factors to create a potential never-ending “template” for other creations of literature in the future.

HOLLY SONNET 10

By: John Donne, 1572 - 1631

Author’s Background: He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons.

Summary

This poem goes on about death being a figure that has been known to be mighty and dreadful. A common image or personification of so-called “death” was portrayed by the famous Grim Reaper also known as king of the dead. He causes a victim’s death by coming to collect their souls. The author says otherwise, he writes that death is not something or someone to be feared. It should be considered as a sort of reward or another form of slumber. Finally, he claims that death is only temporary as according to his religion, they are going to “awaken once more” in the afterlife where death will no longer exist.

Biographical Approach

Some of the similar aspects to the author’s life in regards to his work “Holly Sonnet 10” was during his early life of when he married Anne Donne and she bore 12 children though only 10 survived and three of which died before they turned 10. He went through despair as he slowly lost a child one by one. He distracted himself by writing Biathanatos though not published at that time but it was later published after his death, it was only a means of defense from suicidal thoughts during that time. His wife Anne Donne died after 5 days of giving birth to their 12^th child which he also wrote about his love and loss entitled “17^th Holy Sonnet”. Donne's earliest poems focused on topics like corruption, mediocre poets, and pompous courtiers. He claims that one needs to know his religion inside out, instead of blindly following it. Characters or subjects of his writings are all mostly non-fictional, significant people, society at that time, etc...