preview

A Cask Of Amontillado, By Edgar Allen Poe

Good Essays

Edgar Allen Poe and Charlotte Perkins Gilman depict a digression of humanity and sanity. Poe presents the downfall of Fortunato in “A Cask of Amontillado, and Gilman presents the same of John in “A yellow Wallpaper”, yet it is out of out of their own undoing. Each of their downfall is at the expense of themselves, yet it is at the hands of another. Neither character realizes the everlasting consequences of their own actions. Fortunato is arrogant and belittles those around him while John fails to understand or even listen to his own wife. They each regard their positions in the highest esteem, and neither John nor Fortunato ever give heeding to anyone they consider below them. This is their gravest mistake and the cause of their destruction. Both stories create a sense of duality, for within their actions, those around them are shaped in similar fashion. Jane and Montresor become mirror images of them. Poe and Gilman illustrate the grave consequences of one’s own action and its effect upon others which is exhibited through Fortunato’s and John’s position and interactions with others, Jane and Montresor’s reactions, and the consequences upon both pairs of characters. As each story commences, Fortunato and John are presented in the highest regards, yet because of these esteemed positions, both succumb to their own vulnerabilities. Fortunato is portrayed as a drunk incapable of intricate thought, “Fortunato, like his countrymen, [is] a quack” (Poe 179). Fortunato epitomizes

Get Access