When writing fictional stories, authors use the literary purpose. One major characteristic of the literary purpose is the enhanced use of language. Literal language may be used entertainingly, or figurative language may be used to provide a secondary meaning for a story. Authors' styles are based on their creative use of language.
*Remember, you must write only one analysis from Assignments 5, 6, and 7. You do not need to write all three analyses.
VERY IMPORTANT: This assignment requires a research component. Read the assignment requirements below carefully.
If you have forgotten your MLA documentation from your Composition I course, you can find a refresher guide at this link: Research Paper Guide.
Contents
What Is Language?
Syntax and Sentence Structure
Diction
Imagery
Figures of Speech
Allusions
Symbolism
Irony
Analyzing Language
A Detailed Example of Language Analysis
Another Detailed Example of Language Analysis
Writing the Assignment 7 Language Analysis
Sample Analysis - Assignment 7
MLA Works Cited Entries
ASSIGNMENT 7 REQUIREMENTS
Guidelines for Submitting Your Assignment Files
Language is, of course, a necessary component of any story. Without language, the author could not tell the story. To write the story, the author usually uses a combination of literal language and figurative language. Together, these languages characterize the author's style.
Literal language means what it says. It employs the primary meaning of a term or expression. It is actual, obvious, and free from embellishment or exaggeration. Example: The man ran across the street.
Figurative language is imaginative and nonliteral. It employs figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, symbols, irony, and others. A figure of speech is an expression used to convey a secondary meaning or to heighten effect. This conveyance is usually accomplished by comparing one thing to another that has a meaning presumably familiar to the reader. Often the things compared are dissimilar. The secondary meaning created by figurative language adds an element of interpretation or comparison not found in literal language. Example: The man ran across the street like a frightened squirrel. The simile like a frightened squirrel is the author's interpretation of the man's action. The simile adds depth to the reader's perception of the action.
The most important types of figurative language in a story are usually irony, symbolism, and allusion.
An author usually has two functions in a story: purpose/central idea and style. If purpose is that which is to be said, style is how it is to be said. Every writer has a style. This writing style (like a lifestyle or hairstyle) is produced through the conscious (usually) use of literal and figurative language. Style springs from the writer's combination of diction, figures of speech, and syntax. Style is what allows writers like William Faulkner to pen passages such as "He said we would be there tomorrow. Tomorrow we were there." You may wonder why this passage is noteworthy. In the second sentence, Faulkner is able to combine the future and the past in a logical context.
An author's style may in some ways reflect his worldview. Two good examples are Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. These two American contemporaries had markedly different styles and worldviews. Hemingway used a sparse style that reflected his rather cynical view of the world as a somewhat barren place; for the most part, he used simple language and simple sentence construction to reflect his spare view. On the other hand, Faulkner used a complex, florid style that reflected his view of the world as a multilayed, intricate place full of complex individuals.
Perhaps you have heard of various styles common in everyday usage, such as legalese or bureacratese. These styles are usually complex and full of jargon. Their purpose is often to exclude those outside the specific group. The military has such lingo, as do education and lawyers and most every professional or vocational group.
"The car was going a wild forty-five miles an hour across the open and as Macomber watched, the buffalo got bigger and bigger until he could see the gray, hairless, scabby look of one huge bull and how his neck was a part of his shoulders and the shiny black of his horns as he galloped a little behind the others that were strung out in that steady plunging gait; and then, the car swaying as though it had just jumped a road, they drew up close and he could see the plunging hugeness of the bull, and the dust in his sparsely haired hide, the wide boss of horn and his outstretched, wide-nostrilled muzzle, and he was raising his rifle when Wilson shouted, "Not from the car, you fool!" and he had no fear, only hatred of Wilson, while the brakes clamped on and the car skidded, plowing sideways to an almost stop and Wilson was out on one side and he on the other, stumbling as his feet hit the still speeding-by of the earth, and then he was shooting at the bull as he moved away, hearing the bullets whunk into him, emptying his rifle at him as he moved steadily away, finally remembering to get his shots forward into the shoulder, and as he fumbled to re-load, he saw the bull was down."Notice that this passage is all one sentence. The men are on a buffalo hunt, chasing the bulls in a car wildly careening across the African plain, and the sentence and the action continue until the bull falls. Also notice the wonderful depiction of Macomber's jump from the car: "his feet hit the still speeding-by of the earth."
Connotations not carefully considered can become humorous writing: "She was dressed in a beautiful green evening gown with a lovely bouquet of forget-me-nots daintily balanced in her fist." Here, literally a fist is a closed hand, but connotatively, a fist conjures up visions of violence, an image inappropriate for a formal dance.
NOTE: Before you continue in this lecture, you should read "Araby" in Fiction 100 or elsewhere.
James Joyce's "Araby" is a marvelously rich and complex mythic story that poses as a tale of puppy love. In the story, the central character is an unnamed first-person male narrator who is looking back at a childhood incident in Dublin in the early 1900s. The narrator as a boy is "in love" with Mangan's sister, and after he promises to bring her something from a local bazaar, his life is filled with anxiety. Failing to fulfill his promise only makes matters worse, and at the end he sees himself as "a creature driven and derided by vanity." Heavy-duty teenage angst, don't you think?
One can simply dismiss the story as young love gone wrong, with a conflict of boy vs. girl and a failure to achieve the goal. Such an interpretation, though, would suggest a thoroughly shallow analysis. Symbolic stories such as this one contain a "second level," and astute analysis is often necessary to make the leap from the surface level to the secondary level. This story is filled with numerous symbols and allusions, and a careful examination yields rich rewards.
To uncover the rich underbelly of this story, the reader must assume that everything is important. For a story full of allusions, such as this one, the reader must make an extra effort to find the meaning of the allusions. The boy mentions three books on the first page of the story, and these books may be summarized in footnotes in the story. The first book is by Sir Walter Scott, who wrote many Romance novels about knights and damsels in distress; this particular book is about Mary Queen of Scots. The second book is a guidebook for Catholicism. The third book is about a French adventurer. Combined, these three books should give the reader some idea that Romance (as in chivalry or adventure) and religion will be important in the story.
Later on that page, the boy speaks of running the gauntlet, an activity of knights. On the next page, the boy says that he "bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes," an allusion to the Grail quest of the Arthurian knights. Indeed, the Grail itself represents a kind of melding of religion and the Romance legends: a key relic of Christianity is the object of a quest in a major Romance legend. When the boy thinks of Mangan's sister and his feelings for her, he says "'O love!'" many times in a prayerful posture, combining religion and a call to the muses indicated by the use of the term O.
Araby itself is an archaic reference to Arabia, the destination of the many failed Crusades, another knightly activity. As he goes to the bazaar at Araby, the virginal boy rides alone on the train, an allusion to the prerequisites of the successful Grail knight. At the bazaar, the boy sees two men "counting coins on a salver" and listens to "the fall of the coins," both alluding to Matthew 21:12-13, in which Jesus confronts the moneylenders in the temple.
The allusions noted thus far are, frankly, only a few aspects of figurative language in the story, and they certainly do not give a complete view of the figurative level of the story. They do, however, establish two influences working in the story--religion and Romance--and both are presented in an idealized, naive form. Just as a naive modern youngster might watch a movie and suppose that movie love is representative of real love, the boy in the story has also gained such illusions from the popular culture of his era--religion and Romance.
Let us proceed. Imagery and symbolism at the beginning of the story establish a rather gloomy portrayal of the boy's world. The first two paragraphs are presented in concrete, literal language. Note also that the boy lives on a "blind" (dead-end) street, which might suggest his blindness to the reality of the world, especially when the story ends with his eyes burning with tears when he does come to realize. There is an uninhabited two-story house at the end of the blind street, "detached from its neighbors," and this house may represent the boy. (Also note the two-story feature, as down-up contrasts become significant in the story.) After all, his parents are dead, and he lives with a drunken uncle and a rather ditzy aunt. The former resident of his house was a priest who died. He left the aforementioned books with their "yellow" pages. Behind the house is a "wild garden" with a "central apple-tree," which suggests an overgrown garden of Eden. In paragraph 3 of the story, the neighborhood is further defined in gloomy terms such as cold, silent, musty, and somber. Dead priest, corrupt paradise, somber and silent streets--the suggestion is of a dark, spiritually sterile world, a fallen world; altogether, these images produce the wasteland image popular with many writers of this era who believed the modern world was a spiritual wasteland. The wasteland image is reinforced when the boy passes among the "ruinous houses" on his train ride to the bazaar. All these images combine to form a dark world through which the boy moves.
The boy himself is young and idealistic. The contrast of boy to world is first presented in paragraph 3 of the story. The literal language used by the author in the first two paragraphs yields to the figurative and lyrical as the author focuses on the boy in his world, and his adoration of Mangan's sister brings a glow of light to the dark world. Mangan's sister is never named (suggesting that she is just some ideal), though her name is probably Mary, as the story deals with Irish Catholics. As the boy looks at her, he sees "her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door." She seems to have a nimbus behind her, as the Virgin Mary is often presented. For the naive boy, Mangan's sister becomes the idealized woman, and, further, she takes on the dual symbolic roles of Fair Maiden of chivalric Romance and the Virgin Mary. (Notice in one scene how he stands at the railing, suggesting an altar, and adores her.) Recall the earlier allusions to Romance novels and religion; they combine here to complicate the boy's budding urges. (Pay particular attention to the imagery of the rather sexual scene when he glimpses her petticoat.) In a simplistic sense, Mangan's sister represents the light in the boy's dark world.
Out of this complex melding of imagery emerges the boy's central, internal conflict. It is first and foremost the common initiation conflict (rite of passage) of innocence or idealism (beginning key trait) vs. experience or reality (ending key trait), of light vs. dark. In a deeper sense, it is a perhaps naive concept of religious, spiritual, and romantic idealism vs. the dark reality of the modern world.
As the boy, accompanied by his aunt and the "image" of Mangan's sister, goes shopping in the marketplace, allusions to Vanity Fair (from John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress) arise. Vanity Fair (contrary to the magazine) was a place where any carnal or worldly desire could be had, and the boy's marketplace is "the most hostile to romance." In it, the "shrill litanies of shop-boys" suggest a world where religion is cheapened and commercialized. The boy must carry his "chalice" (his spiritual and romantic ideal love for Mangan's sister) through a place teeming with crass secularity, suggesting the contrast between Romance and the real world.
Curiously, though the boy has fantasized often about Mangan's sister, he has never spoken to her. When he finally does, he is flustered, and he promises to bring her something from the Catholic bazaar at Araby. The days that follow are full of anxiety and visions of the girl "cast by my imagination." The boy becomes distracted, and his grades slip. He says: "I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play." Obviously, he is enduring an internal conflict.
The day of the bazaar comes at last, and the boy's uncle promises to give him some money. Supper passes, and still the uncle does not come home. The boy becomes impatient and irritated. He goes to the "upper part of the house" and recalls the light of his idealistic love. The author makes use of this down-up contrast to suggest earth and heaven or reality and idealism, the two components of the boy's internal conflict. Recall the detached, two-story house at the end of the boy's street? Now, its representation of the boy should be a bit clearer.
The uncle finally arrives home downstairs, drunk, and he delays even more before giving the boy money. Soon, the boy is in the "streets thronged with buyers"--reality--and he almost forgets "the purpose of my journey"--idealism. Finally, the boy is on his solitary way on a "deserted train" passing "among ruinous houses and over the twinkling river." Like the boy, the Grail knight had to be solitary and pure to be successful in his attempt to recover the Grail. The "ruinous houses" reinforce the wasteland image of the boy's modern world, and the "twinkling river" may suggest the crystal river in heaven as the boy passes from one realm to another to fulfill his spiritual and idealistic quest.
Though the boy arrives very late at the bazaar, he sees the "lighted dial of a clock" before a "large building which displayed the magical name" of Araby. The lighted dial suggests his idealism still exists, though his quest seems doomed to failure. Again, Araby suggests the destination of the Crusades knights who were going to the Middle East to drive out the infidels and restore "true religion" to the Holy Land. The last few paragraphs of the story seal the boy's fate.
The boy says he cannot find a "sixpenny entrance." This simple statement bears much significance. The sixpenny entrance is for children. The innocent boy is about to enter the world of experience, and the transition must be accomplished with the boy's passage through the adult's entrance. Hence, the shilling entrance marks his symbolic initiation into the adult world of experience and serves as the climax of the story.
Inside the building is a "big hall girdled at half its height by a gallery." Here again is the down-up contrast presented earlier in the story. The upper part again suggests some sort of spirituality or idealism, the bottom half reality. In the hall he notices a "silence like that which pervades a church after a service," suggesting a spiritual sterility in the place that had held so much hope and promise for him.
He approaches a stall named Cafe Chantant, the chantant a French word suggesting harmony. But there is no harmony here. He notes the English accents of the people in the stall, hinting at the long-standing conflict between the English and the Irish. Two men are counting coins, the aforementioned allusion to the moneylenders in the temple, the overriding realization the boy gains. The conversation of the people in the stall is somewhat argumentative as they quibble about love and trivialize its quality. The boy is angered by their triteness and by his own perceived inadequacy.
The boy tries to act interested in the wares in the stall, but none is appropriate for his true love, and he does not have enough money anyway. His quest has failed, his promise is broken, and his innocence and idealism fade. He hears a voice call that "the light was out. The upper part of the hall was completely dark." The Eastern wares suggest the mysteries of the Far East, which is commonly called the Orient, and in fact these Eastern wares and the "Eastern enchantment" cast upon the boy by the word Araby serve as an orientation for the boy into the real world.
The boy begins the story as an innocent child full of idealism. His symbolic quest is to restore spirituality and idealism to a modern world corrupted by commercialism and secularity. He undergoes a necessary initiation into adulthood, and with it comes the dynamic realization that the modern world is a dark, empty place. His dreams are dashed, and he is profoundly disillusioned. At the end of the story, he gazes up into darkness and sees himself as "a creature driven and derided by vanity," and his "eyes burned with anguish and anger." Sadly, the boy at the end believes that ideals are vain.
As noted earlier, the narrator is a man looking back at his youth, so the sad memory has lingered for decades and has had a significant impact on his outlook. Because most people have had some major event that has affected them in a significant negative way, the tone of the story is sad and sympathetic.
This story operates well on different levels. On the surface level, the story is about the common experience of first love lost. As such, it is interesting but unremarkable. As a symbolic story, though, it weaves a mystical tale. The boy lives in a spiritually crippled world, a common sentiment among many writers of the early 1900s. This spiritually sterile world parallels the fallen world of Camelot in the Arthurian legends and the occupation of the Holy Land by "infidels" that inspired the Crusades. Each event includes a quest to restore the place to its former glory and prosperity. The Knights of the Round Table sought the Holy Grail, a symbol of female sexuality corresponding to the phallic symbolism of the sword Excalibur; together, the two yielded fertility and bounteousness. The numerous Crusades attempted to drive the infidels from the Holy Land. The boy goes to Araby to get a gift for his love to consummate his idealism, in itself a big irony. In a fallen world of commercialism, he wants to buy his ideal love a gift. Unfortunately, he fails and is dismayed.
The story suggests several conflicts, but all have a common basis in his internal struggle of innocence vs. experience, in which he is a passive protagonist. The innocence is represented by the light, his idealized love of Mangan's sister, and his confused mingling of chivalry and religion. The experience is represented by the darkness, the adult entrance at the bazaar, the corrupt commercial nature of the modern world, and his despair at the end. His change from innocence to experience shows his dynamic character.
A viable central idea for this story would be: Many young people are disillusioned when they find their ideals at odds with the true nature of the modern world.
NOTE: Before you continue in this lecture, you should read "The Cask of Amontillado" in Fiction 100 or elsewhere.
Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" is, on the surface, a story about a man who seeks revenge because he has been insulted. On a deeper level, though, it is an ironic story about guilty conscience. The central character, Montresor, has been insulted by his rival, Fortunato, and vows revenge. In the first paragraph of the story, Montresor defines his character and notes that a final insult has driven him to action against the arrogant Fortunato. Fancying himself an expert on human nature, Montresor establishes a set of guidelines for a successful revenge. Little does he know that he himself will not be able to fulfill his conditions as the story progresses.
At the beginning of the story, Montresor is a man full of determination and spite. He has borne the brunt of Fortunato's arrogance for years. Finally, some unnamed insult drives him over the edge, and he vows to "punish with impunity." In fact, impunity is one of the conditions that Montresor has established; the other is that the avenger must make himself known as such to the victim. With those conditions in place, Montresor proceeds with determination and a sense of justice. Indeed, Montresor's sense of self-righteousness is his beginning key trait.
Montresor's plan is to lure Fortunato into the catacombs below his house during the height of the carnival season (Mardi Gras). Montresor's plan to entrap Fortunato includes a series of ironies. Montresor has instructed his house staff not to leave while he is gone; of course, they do leave, a situational irony. The reader might expect them to stay, but Montresor certainly does not because, as noted, he considers himself an expert on human nature. When Montresor first meets Fortunato, he tells Fortunato that he is going to find another man to help him determine the authenticity of a fine sherry he claims to have bought. Fortunato calls the other man an "'ignoramus,'" then volunteers his own services, ignorantly stepping into Montresor's clever plan, a dramatic irony. Fortunato's name itself is a situational and dramatic irony; his name means "fortunate," but his fate is not to be at all fortunate. Other ironies abound as Montresor feigns concern for Fortunato's health, and Fortunato claims he will not die from his persistent cough. One wine they drink is the ironically named De Grave.
The story contains an obvious surface conflict of man vs. man, Montresor v. Fortunato, but the central conflict does not emerge until late in the story. Fortunato essentially leads himself to the alleged cask (casket?) of Amontillado and his doom, so no real struggle exists in the surface conflict. After Montresor makes repeated ironic pleas for Fortunato to turn back, the two arrive at the niche that supposedly contains the Amontillado.
Fortunato enters the niche and, in his drunken stupor, finds himself suddenly chained to the wall. Montresor starts to brick up the entrance, and the dumbfounded Fortunato begs for mercy. At first, Montresor takes his time, enjoying his revenge. He even stops his work so that he can listen to the pleas "with the more satisfaction," showing his beginning key trait of self-righteousness. He is having a good time tormenting his antagonist.
As the plan progresses, however, Montresor loses his determination. As Montresor continues his work of bricking up Fortunato, his resolve wavers, and he begins to have second thoughts. Here the central conflict emerges--Montresor's sense of self-righteousness vs. his guilty conscience. Having gone this far, however, Montresor cannot turn back, despite the pleas of Fortunato.
As Montresor continues his work, he comes to the last brick, and he "struggled with its weight." With second thoughts, he sees no end but to complete his plan. He places the last brick and his "heart grew sick." At the climax of the story, as Montresor places the last brick, his sickness of heart suggests that remorse and a guilty conscience now prevail, showing a dynamic change in Montresor. His initial resolve and self-righteousness are gone, and his gleeful lust for revenge has given way to an ending key trait of remorse and a guilty conscience.
The major irony of the story centers on the central conflict and Montresor's dynamic change. At first, Montresor is full of resolve as he establishes the conditions of a good revenge. However, as the plan progresses, he fails to meet his own expectations, the major situational irony. He does not make himself known as an avenger to Fortunato, and he does not commit the revenge with impunity. Though Montresor is not legally penalized, he suffers the punishment of his own guilty conscience, a common theme for Poe.
Poe's tale unfolds in Italy in the early 1800s. Montresor is a sophisticated man, experienced in fine wines, as is Fortunato. Montresor lives in a mansion, his dead ancestors entombed in the catacombs below. Through these catacombs, coated with nitre, Montresor leads Fortunato to his symbolic casket, a niche in the catacomb wall. As a man of position, Montresor has a family crest. His crest shows a foot stomping a snake; however, the snake's fangs are imbedded in the heel of the foot, injecting a poison, a situational irony taken in light of the family motto: "No one attacks me with impunity." The poison is guilt, and from this imagery of the crest comes the central conflict, Montresor's sense of self-righteousness vs. his guilty conscience. The time of the setting is around Mardi Gras, a time of general license leading to Lent, a time of penitence. (By the way, carnival comes from the expression "carne vale," meaning "goodbye, meat," after the practice of giving up meat for Lent.) Poe has used setting to reflect the central conflict in Montresor.
Poe uses first-person point of view to allow Montresor to tell his own story fifty years after the fact. Montresor, the narrator, milks sympathy from the reader at every turn, speaking of the "thousand injuries" and the "insult" that Fortunato had inflicted upon him. Fortunato, dressed in the costume of the court jester, is clearly a fool, but Montresor's narration enhances the negative portrayal of Fortunato in the reader's mind. Fortunato is seen as little more than the ignoramus he accuses another man of being. The good faith Montresor has garnered works to paint him as a rather sympathetic murderer in the reader's eyes. As suggested earlier, Fortunato's name is ironic, but the irony of Fortunato's name is actually a double-edged sword. By dying, Fortunato is the fortunate one, in a sense; Montresor lives on for fifty years with the burden of his guilt. As a result, his plaintive plea at the end of the story--"May he rest in peace"--may not be meant for Fortunato but as an attempt to soothe his own guilty conscience.
Many students are unclear about the insult that drives Montresor to revenge. Some believe that Fortunato has insulted Montresor's family. If so, shouldn't Montresor show more respect for his own family? In the catacombs, Montresor reports that from one wall "the bones had been thrown down, and lay promiscuously upon the earth." Later, Montresor returns to the pile of bones and throws them aside to uncover mortar and bricks. He does not seem to have much respect for his own dead ancestors, so why should a family insult drive him over the edge?
Another suggestion is that Fortunato has insulted Montresor's expertise in wines. If so, wouldn't a logical person such as Montresor concoct a plan of revenge that embodies the nature of the insult? If wine were the issue, Montresor could easily poison Fortunato and do away with his body. But Montresor goes to great lengths to lead Fortunato into the catacombs and to brick him up there. So, a closer investigation is warranted.
A curious scene occurs between Montresor and Fortunato as they journey through the catacombs. Fortunato drinks some wine and makes a gesture that Montresor does not comprehend. Fortunato says that Montresor is "'not of the brotherhood.'" The brotherhood in question is the Freemasons. When Montresor claims he is a mason, Fortunato says, "'You? Impossible!'" When a person is nominated to be a Freemason, a secret vote takes place. If one person blackballs the nominee, he cannot become a mason. The suggestion in this scene is that Fortunato blackballed Montresor, apparently because he was not a worthy character or perhaps because of "'the love of God.'"
Further background on the Freemasons would probably be helpful. The fraternity of Freemasons sprang from the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages--though some claim the Freemasons date to Biblical times. At first an operative guild of brickmasons, it later became the speculative fraternity of Freemasons. A person can nominate himself to become a Freemason, but he must be voted upon by the sitting members as explained above. Some of the qualities necessary to become a Freemason are a belief in a supreme deity, a good moral character, a fair degree of intelligence, and the absence of injury or defect of body that would prevent one from doing his duties as a Freemason. Obviously, then, if Fortunato blackballed Montresor, the insult is significant.
Because the Freemasons are a relatively secret society, they have a bunch of symbolic gestures. When Fortunato asks for a sign to prove he is a Freemason, Montresor produces a trowel, which he later uses to brick up Fortunato, showing just how good a mason he could be. Obviously, the discrepancy in meaning of mason sets up this wonderful situational irony.
Poe's story contains many ironies, but the major irony is used to illustrate Montresor's internal central conflict and his dynamic character. Though Montresor does entomb Fortunato, he cannot savor the revenge because a guilty conscience consumes him for the next fifty years. Poe, a master of human nature, suggests with his story that one's conscience can ruin even the perfect crime.
Many people regard this story as a horror tale, which it is not, really. If there is horror in this story, it is that the human mind allows and indeed prompts people to do vile things, and then it makes them suffer for having done so. Scary.
This sample essay is single-spaced. Your typed essay must be double-spaced.
Your introductory paragraph for the Assignment 7 essay must include:
Trowel and Error
"The Cask of Amontillado," by Edgar Allan Poe, is a deliciously ironic story about guilty conscience. The central character, Montresor, has been insulted by his rival, Fortunato, and vows revenge. He plans to entomb Fortunato in the catacombs below his house, and he establishes a set of guidelines for a successful revenge. As the plan progresses, however, Montresor loses his determination. Though Montresor does entomb Fortunato, he cannot savor the revenge because a guilty conscience consumes him for the next fifty years. Poe, a master of human nature, suggests with his story that ONE'S CONSCIENCE CAN RUIN EVEN THE PERFECT CRIME. Poe uses irony to reveal Montresor's internal conflict and dynamic character.
At first, Montresor is a man full of determination and spite. He has borne the brunt of Fortunato's arrogance for years. Finally, some unnamed insult drives him over the edge, and he vows to "punish with impunity" (Poe 1149). In fact, impunity is one of the conditions that Montresor has established; the other is that the avenger must make himself known as such to the victim. With those conditions in place, Montresor proceeds with determination and a sense of justice. Indeed, Montresor's sense of self-righteousness is his beginning key trait.
Fortunato volunteers to help Montresor verify the authenticity of the Amontillado that Montresor claims he has purchased. By doing so, Fortunato furthers the surface conflict of man vs. man, Montresor v. Fortunato, but the central conflict does not emerge until late in the story. Fortunato essentially leads himself to the alleged cask (casket?) of Amontillado and his doom, so no real struggle exists in the surface conflict. After Montresor makes repeated verbally ironic pleas for Fortunato to turn back, the two arrive at the niche that supposedly contains the Amontillado. Fortunato enters the niche and finds himself suddenly chained to the wall. Montresor starts to brick up the entrance, and the dumbfounded Fortunato begs for mercy. At first, Montresor stops his work so that he can listen to the pleas "with the more satisfaction" (Poe 1153), showing his beginning key trait of self-righteousness. He is enjoying his revenge. As Montresor continues his work, he comes to the last brick, and he "struggled with its weight" (Poe 1153). With second thoughts, he sees no end but to complete his plan. He places the last brick and his "heart grew sick" (Poe 1153). Fifty years later, as he is retelling the story for the reader, Montresor issues a prayer: "May he rest in peace" (Poe 1154). Montresor seems to have undergone a change. His initial resolve is gone, and his gleeful lust for revenge has given way to a feeling of remorse, his ending key trait.
Several ironies exist that give deeper meaning to the story and demonstrate the central conflict. Montresor's family crest shows a foot stomping a snake; however, the snake's fangs are imbedded in the heel of the foot, injecting a poison, a situational irony taken in light of the family motto: "No one attacks me with impunity" (Poe 1151). When Montresor tells Fortunato about the crest, "he has in mind no doubt the golden legitimacy of his vengeance, a just and unquestionable retributions for the thousand lacerations he has borne in silence" (Stepp 448). The poison, however, is guilt, and from this imagery of the crest comes the central conflict, Montresor's sense of self-righteousness vs. his guilty conscience. The major irony of the story centers on this conflict. At first, Montresor is full of resolve as he establishes the conditions of a good revenge. However, as the plan progresses, he fails to meet his own expectations, the major situational irony. He does not make himself known as an avenger to Fortunato, and he does not commit the revenge with impunity. Though he is not legally penalized, he suffers the punishment of his own guilty conscience, a common theme for Poe. At the climax of the story, as Montresor places the last brick, his sickness of heart suggests that remorse and a guilty conscience now prevail, showing a dynamic change in Montresor. In addition, the irony of Fortunato's name is actually a double-edged sword. By dying, Fortunato is the fortunate one, in a sense; Montresor lives on for fifty years with the burden of his guilt. Montresor realizes that "his victory has been a hollow one. Fatally pinioning Fortunato in an upright position and placing him in a tomb, Montresor has unwittingly reenacted the Crucifixion" (Gruesser 129-130). As a result, Montresor's prayer at the end may not be meant for Fortunato but as an attempt to soothe his own guilty conscience.
Poe crowns his story with one final irony. The insult that pushes Montresor over the edge is seemingly unknown. However, a curious scene occurs between Montresor and Fortunato as they journey through the catacombs. Fortunato drinks some wine and makes a gesture that Montresor fails to comprehend. Fortunato says that Montresor is "'not of the brotherhood'" (Poe 1152). When Montresor claims he is a mason, Fortunato says, "'You? Impossible!'" (Poe 1152). When a person is nominated to be a Freemason, a secret vote takes place. If one person blackballs the nominee, he cannot become a mason. The suggestion in this scene is that Fortunato blackballed Montresor, apparently because he was not a worthy character or perhaps because of "'the love of God'" (Poe 1153). When Fortunato asks for a sign, Montresor produces a trowel, which he later uses to brick up Fortunato, showing just how good a mason he could be. Obviously, the discrepancy in meaning of mason sets up this wonderful situational irony.
Poe uses multiple examples of irony in this story to present a theme common in his work: the human mind prompts people to do vile things, then makes them suffer for having done so. Montresor's central conflict grows from Poe's key situational irony, and that same irony reveals his dynamic character. With his ironic story, Poe clearly demonstrates the overwhelming power of a guilty conscience.
Works CitedGruesser, John. "Poe's THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO."
Explicator Spring 1998, Vol. 56 Issue 3: 129-130.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 May 2012.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of Amontillado." Fiction 100, 11th Edition.
Ed. James H. Pickering. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 1149-1154. Print.
Stepp, Walter. "The Ironic Double in Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'"
Studies in Short Fiction Fall 1976, Vol. 13 Issue 4: 447-453.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 May 2012.
Most students will likely use one of the MLA Works Cited formats below. You can find other MLA Works Cited formats in the Research Paper Guide. If you can't find the right format for your source, ask your instructor. Your Works Cited entries must be double-spaced.
Primary source:
Last name, First name of author. "Title of Story." Title of book. Editor.
City where published: Name of Publisher, year published.
Page numbers on which story appears. Print.
Example of primary source entry:
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of Amontillado." Fiction 100, 11th Edition.
Ed. James H. Pickering. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 1149-1154. Print.
Secondary source article from an academic journal in an ACC subscription database:
Last name, First name of author (if given). "Title of Article."
Name of Magazine Volume or Date of issue: page numbers.
Name of Database. Web. Date of Access.
Example of secondary source article entry:
Stepp, Walter. "The Ironic Double in Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'"
Studies in Short Fiction Fall 1976, Vol. 13 Issue 4: 447-453.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 May 2012.
*Remember, all students must write ONE analysis for Assignment 5 or Assignment 6 or Assignment 7.
You do not need to write all three analyses. Though you might not write this analysis, you are still required to read the information in this lecture. You will need to use this information in writing your Assignment 8 analysis and the C exam.
BE AWARE that you must use research and MLA documentation to complete this assignment.
First, read a story from the list below. Reading the story at least twice is recommended. These stories are in Fiction 100.
Assignment stories:
Second, write an analytical essay of at least five paragraphs. Use the referential-interpretive purpose to write your analysis. Your analysis must also include properly documented research information, as detailed in the third step below.
Develop a thesis that deals with some aspect of figurative language in that story--particularly symbolism, irony, or allusion--in relation to two secondary elements, especially character and conflict. Be very specific in discussing the representations or discrepancies the symbols, ironies, or allusions suggest. Support your thesis with pertinent examples from the story. Show how symbolism, irony, or allusion suggests and supports the secondary meaning of the story.
Third, and VERY IMPORTANT: The story you choose is your primary source. You must also use at least one secondary source and MLA documentation in your analysis. In other words, you must do research to aid you in writing this assignment, and you must use proper MLA documentation that accurately credits your sources.
If you have forgotten your MLA documentation from your Composition I course, you can find a refresher guide at this link:
Research Paper Guide.
You might also check out these other links.
ACC Library MLA Documentation Tutorial
Info Game Tutorial
Length: 750 - 1000 words
All students must complete ONE of the following assignments: Assignment 5, Assignment 6, Assignment 7.
Submit this assignment using the Submissions button in Blackboard.
If you are not sure how to submit your assignment file by now, review the guidelines at this link to Assignment 2.