Americans as well as others still have mixed opinions of Poe's works. Poe developed his short story genre that impacted literature. According to Great Lives from History, Edgar Allan Poe "both in his criticism and in his dark, metaphysically mysterious stories, helped create a literature that made America a cultural force not to be ignored" (Magill p1810). Poe influenced the symbolists as he insisted that art is an appropriate instrument for dealing with the subjective and the transcendent in human life. .
Through out his career as well as present day Poe is criticized for his style of writing. It has been speculated, because of the death of his mother, that loss would reveal itself over and over again throughout his literary works. The undercurrent of grief flows through many of Poe's writings. Poe, as all human beings, are influenced by their past experiences, and often we see that the direction one takes relies on their past. Poe took refuge from the physical world in the private world of his dreams and in his tales. .
Poe writes his story The Cask of Amontillado in which the protagonist, Montressor, carefully plans his revenge. Montressor has become aggrieved by the insults of his friend Fortunato however the details of the insults are never given. Montressor entices Fortunato with the amontillado as he lures him into his family crypt where he entombs him behind a brick wall.
Although there are many things we do not know about the protagonist of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado", we do know he is determined to get revenge "The thousand injuries" (Poe p2). Because the narrator is telling his story in the first person the reader has only Montressor's perception. How would the story be if Fortunato told it instead? One might not feel the suspense and the subsequent rise in action would not be understood or felt with any anticipation if the reader thought Montressor and Fortunato were merely searching for Amontillado.