The Tormented Life of Edgar Allan Poe
“The Short Life” 1809-1849
• Background
• Born 1809-1849
• His mother died during his
youth
and
his
father
abandoned them
• After the death of his
grandmother married his 13year-old cousin, Virginia in
1835
• Virginia died in 1847
• Died in 1849
• Education of Poe
• Entered and dropped
from both the
University of Virginia
and West Point
• Ran into debt and
started borrowing
money, gambling and
getting deeper into
debt
• Writing Style of Poe
• Wrote in a Gothic
Style
• Deep and intense
• Explorations of а
world of dream and
of nightmare
• In his stories the
past is darker,
mоrе ominous and
oppresses his
heroes and
heroines
• Poe’s Characters
• Many of his
characters аrе filled
with madness
• Obsessed with the
irrational side of the
mind
• Famous Works
– Short Stories
– Poems
• The Pit and the
Pendulum
• The Fall of the House of
Usher
• Tell-Tale Heart
• The Cask of the
Amontillado
• The Masque of the Red
Death
• The Raven
• Lenore
The Cask of
Amontillado
• Background
– The Cask of Amontillado
• Published 1846
• One theory for the
inspiration for story was a
feud Poe had with 2 other
poets
• The story was somewhat
controversial for focusing
his story on a crime with
no apparent motive, and
a murderer with no
apparent remorse
• The Cask of Amontillado
– Overview
• The story is narrated
by Montresor, who
carries a grudge
against Fortunato for
an offense that is
never explained
• Montresor leads a
drunken Fortunato
through a series of
chambers beneath his
palazzo
• The Cask of Amontillado
– Overview
• Although Fortunato has a
horrible cough the
promise of a taste of
Amontillado spurs him
deeper and deeper into
the underground
• When the two men reach
the last underground
chamber, Montresor
chains Fortunato to the
wall, builds a new wall to
seal him in, and leaves
him to die
• Literary Focus
– Themes and Conflicts
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Revenge
Madness
Deception
Remorse vs. Lack of
Remorse
Pride
Friendship
Power and Respect
Social Clases and
Social Significance
within Society
• Literary Focus
– Symbols
• Montresor’s Coat of
Arms and motto,
Nemo me impune
lacessit
•
– Irony
• The Usage of a
Trowel
•
Fortunado belongs to a secret
society called the Freemasons
•
Montresor says he is also a
mason, but then produces a trowel
used for regular masonery work
•
Fortunado thinks this action is
trivial, but the trowel ends up
playing an integral part in his
demise .
•
A foot in a blue background
crushing a snake whose fangs are
embedded in the foot's heel
“No one attacks me with impunity”
– Both the coat of arms and motto
are representative of Montresor’s
lust for revenge
– He will crush Fortunado for the
“injuries” he has given
• Literary Focus
– Point of View
• Told in the first
person by Montresor
• By presenting the
story in the first
person, Poe puts the
reader at the mercy of
an unreliable narrator,
a mad man, who
decides what to tell
and what to leave out.
• Fortunato
• Montresor's sworn
enemy,
• Fortunato displays no
uneasiness in
Montresor's company,
and is unaware that his
friend is plotting against
him.
• Fortunato is a proud
connoisseur of fine wine
• He is urged on by the
chance of sampling some
rare Amontillado
• Luchesi
• Acquaintance of
Montresor's and
Fortunato's
• A rival wine expert of
Fortunado’s
• Montresor keeps
Fortunato on the trail
of the Amontillado by
threatening to allow
Luchesi to sample it
first
• Montresor
• Holds a grudge against
his friend Fortunato, who
has committed several
unnamed offenses
against him
• Wealthy and lives in a
palazzo
• Has planned murder of
Fortunado
• Telling the story fifty
years after it has taken
place he reveals no
regret for his actions
The
Masque
of the
Red
Death
• The Masque of Red
Death
– Background
• Poe’s fictional Red Death
is probably based on the
Black Death, which killed
as many as two thirds of
the population in some
regions in Europe
• Poe calls the plague “the
Red Death” because
victims oozed blood from
painful sores.
• Summary
• In this story a fourteenthcentury prince gives a costume
party, or masque, to try to
forget about the epidemic
raging all around him.
• Theme
• Inevitibility of death (regardless
how much money you have)
• Human weakness and fear
• Arrogance
• Death
• Allegory
• A narrative that is really a double story. One
story takes place on the surface. Under the
surface the story’s characters and events
represent abstract ideas
• Symbol
• Something that is itself and yet also represents
something else
– Can be read both as a chilling ghost story
and as an allegory representing the
inevitability of death.
– Prospero’s name (Prospero means
prosperous)
– The stranger’s appearance (Dressed like
the Grim Reaper or Death)
– The arrangement of the seven halls
• The rooms of the palace, lined up in a
series, allegorically represent the
stages of life.
• Their colors (black=death), (red=blood)
• Clock marking the inevitable passage of
time.
• Characters
– Prince Prospero
• Prince Prospero invites a
thousand lords and ladies to
escape death by living
luxuriously in his castle until
the pestilence passes.
• To entertain his guests
Prospero hosts a masquerade
party that takes place in seven
halls, each a different color.
– The Stranger
• At the stroke of midnight, a tall
figure in a blood-splattered
burial costume appears.
• Prospero demands that his
friends seize the intruder, but
everyone is frozen with fear as
the stranger slowly walks
through the rooms.