I was first introduced to Poe the summer I turned eleven. I was sleeping

The eye bothers him so much that he cannot sleep. He spends several nights prior to the murder observing the old man as he sleeps. One night, the old man starts in his sleep. This frightens the narrator, making him think that the old man has seen him watching through a crack in the door. He enters the room and the narrator says that “in an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him” (Literature, 38). He is relieved because the bothersome eye will no longer plague him. His relief is short lived, and he is horrified to discover that “the heart beat on with a muffled sound” (Literature, 38). After making sure that the old man is truly dead, he describes the pains he went to in order to hide the body. “First of all, I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs” (Literature, 38). Then he puts the body in a washtub and buries it underneath one of the floorboards.

“The Cask of Amontillado” is the tale of a man who has been pushed to the edge by the practical jokes of another man. Fortunato is a wine connoisseur who loves to play pranks on people. He constantly plays jokes on the narrator, who has grown tired of him and his constant pranks. As a result, he hatches a plot to lure Fortunato to his wine cellar one evening during a festival, which is akin to Mardi Gras. He happens upon Fortunato, who has become inebriated and is stumbling through the streets. He tells Fortunato that he has purchased a cask of Amontillado that he thinks is no good. He says he is going to seek out Luchresi, another connoisseur of wine, to see if what he has purchased really is Amontillado. Fortunato prides himself on being the biggest wine expert there is. The narrator knows that this is his one weakness, and he plays on it. Upon the news that the narrator is going to seek advice from another wine expert, he insists on going to the narrator’s cellar to examine the wine, which is what the narrator knew was going to happen. Once he takes Fortunato to his cellar, he continues to ply him with liquor.

“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a story of murder and madness. It opens with a man recounting the story of how he murdered an old man, perhaps his landlord. The reason he offers for deciding to murder the old man is petty and makes absolutely no sense. It is not a murder motivated by avarice just to get his hands on the man’s money; instead, it is motivated by his appearance. One of the old man’s eyes “resembled that of a vulture” (Literature, 36) and is “a pale blue eye with a film over it” (Literature, 36). This is obviously the reasoning of a madman, yet he does not consider himself insane. He denies his insanity at the very beginning, when he asks, “why will you say that I am mad?” (Literature, 36). He refers to his insanity as a “disease” (Literature, 36), and refuses to see it for what it really is.

The psychological aspect of this story is fascinating. During the course of the story, the narrator offers no explanation for his hatred of Fortunato, nor why he wishes to end Fortunato’s life. At first, it appears that the murder is not premeditated. It looks like the narrator is walking through the town square one day, happens upon Fortunato, and decides then and there to murder him. However, there are two clues offered in the story that suggest otherwise. The first one is the trowel that he has stashed in the voluminous folds of his robe. The second one is the bricks and mortar in the cellar that the narrator has hidden behind a pile of skeletons and loose bones. These items attest to the fact that the murder was indeed thought out before hand. However, the story offers no additional clues that indicate how long it has been since the narrator cooked up his scheme, or exactly what happened between the narrator and Fortunato to make him resort to murder (For a complete list of Poe’s short stories, see attachment 3).

Some topics in this essay:
Tell-Tale Heart”, Edward Davidson, Cask Amontillado”, Baltimore October, Amontillado Fortunato, Night’s Plutonian, Heaven” Poems, Annabel Lee, Critical Study, Virginia Clemm, poems 21, literature 38, literature 36, poems 22, poe critical study, critical study, poe critical, annabel lee, poems 8, “the cask, cask amontillado”, “the cask amontillado”, heaven” poems 22, chamber door” poems, dead” poems 21,