The Cask Of Amontillado Literary Analysis

Roughly 56,600,000 people die every year, making it no surprise that authors everywhere create stories based around the sport of killing. In the horrific and sadistic stories of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game,” the authors use literary elements to illistrate nefarious murderers . No matter the motives of these murders, demented people always commit them. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” the guile Montresor seeks vengeance on Fortunato, an imprudent man who has an addiction to alcohol by using Fortunato’s desire of Amontillado against him to lure him to his death. In Connell’s amazing short prose “The Most Dangerous Game,” Rainsford, a skillful hunter, falls off a yacht into the Amazon. There he meets the hunting fanatic General Zaroff, who eventually implies that the only creatures that give him a thrill to hunt are humans. Rainsford thought he was being treated well and that him and Zaroff were to hunt other humans together; however, he soon finds out that he is the one who will be hunted. Authors Poe and Connell use tone, metaphores and suspense to illuminate a foreboding atmosphere in their tales “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Most Dangerous Game” ultimately creeping readers out
without necessarily scaring them. Edgar Allan Poe's somber prose "The Cask of Amontillado" uses the element tone right off the bat making readers know that they are reading something dark while also adding to his already direful main character Montresor. Poe's tone, somber sad and dark yet beautifully mysterious, is demonstrated when Montresor describes the mounds of bones and endless amounts of human remains elegantly, and makes it sound beautiful. When Montresor is narrorating their journy of them "passing through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame" he makes it sound magestic; the beauty of his language adds to the sinister air around him (61). Not only does Poe use tone to creep the reader out in "The Cask of Amontillado" but at the same time makes the reader almost in awe of how elegant the tone is exhibited. On the other hand, in Richard Connell's triumphiant prose"The Most Dangerous Game" the tone changes constantly, taking readers for a stressful rollercoaster. Readers never know how to exactly feel about certain things in the prose; incuding the murderer General Zaroff, someone who turned out ot be a lot different than orginially thought. The tone changes when he is first intorduced as someone that may help Rainsford. Readers soon discover that everything is not as light and happy as it seems, when it is revealed that General Zaroff, the owner of the estate, enjoys hunting humans making him a murderous man. The tone now becomes stressed and anxious as readers expirence Rainsford nearly coming to his death a few times before he "heard the hounds. Then he leaped far out into the sea. (8)" The resolution, Rainsford being alive and killing off General Zaroff, leaves readers with a triumphant tone. Although Connell changes the tone in his work, he is similar to Poe when it comes to adding a little bit of dread while still being sophisticated. Both "The Most Dangerous Game" by Connell and "The Cask of Amontillado" by Poe have an excellent way of demonstrating tone, but Connell excells in taking readers for a ride while Poe only has one tone throughout his whole story. To compliment this, Poe, a master at metaphors, uses them to give readers a good visual and does a great job in his dark short prose "The Cask of Amontillado", adding a sinister feel to the dark ways of his describtions.
An example of this is just as Montresor and Fortunato are entering the catacombs and "He (Fortunato) turned towards me, and looked into my eyes with two filmy orbs that distilled the rheum of intoxication.(59)" The way that this metaphor compares the eyes of Fortunato to "two filmy orbs." gives readers an astounding visual in their head as they read. Edgar Allan Poe in his melancholic short prose "The Cask of Amontillado" utlizes the element metaphor to add to his already sophistacated main
character. Like Poe, Connell also uses metaphors beautifully in "The most Dangerous Game", he just does it in a simplier way which does not at all mean Poe's work affects me more. Connell uses simplier words while still giving readers the same excellent visual and makes the reading easier for audience of younger ages. Readers see a metaphor when Rainsford is talking about sleeping and describes how dark it is and thinks "the night would be my eyelids" if he slept with his eyes open (3). This is a comparison between night and eyelids. Connells use of metaphors is simplier but yet just as beautiful in his ominous short prose "The Most Dangerous Game" as Poe is in his frightening short prose "The Cask of Amontillado" proving that more elevated does not always mean better because if all prose was as elevated as Poe's, not everyone could enjoy it as easy. Poe has a very knowledgable way with words, and it does not stop when it comes to the suspense in his work of art "The cask Of Amontillado". To build suspense in the story, Poe often exercises foreshadowing. An example is when Fortunato claims he“ shall not die of a cough,” Montresor replies simply with “True,” because he knows that Fortunato will in fact die when he traps him in the crypt(60). At this time, readers do not know how Montresor plans on killing Fortunado and this piece of foreshadowing adds suspense with the intent to make readers wonder what Montresor will do to kill Fortunado. Edgar Allan Poe does an excellent job of adding suspense in his short prose "The Cask of Amontillado" simply by making readers wonder which is a gift that some authors do not have. Connell builds suspense in a similar way to Poe, by using foreshadowing in his short prose "The Most Dangerous Game" which proved to be successful for Poe by making readers feel curious and nervous about what is to come; this creates a more interesting story. Turns out, Connell has success with it too. When Rainsford is talking to Zaroff at dinner about the game in which he hunted; stating that he “ had to invent a new animal to hunt.(4)" By not coming right out and telling readers the animal General Zaroff hunts, readers keep wondering what the actual game is. The contrast is almost non-existance because these two geniouses are masters are suspense and can create it beautifully. Both Connell and Poe use foreshadowing to add suspense to their short prose peices "The Most Dangerous Game" and "The Cask of Amontillado" with elegant ease and they never fail to create the feeling of suspense when needed in their works of literature. Authors Edgar Allan Poe and Richard Connell both use tone, metaphores and suspension to create excellent yet lurid tales “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Most Dangerous Game”. Connell has more variety in his writing and even though some things are more simple than Poe's work, it is more pleasing to understand which you do in Connell's work. Poe did wonders with words and puts readers in awe with his vocabulary but it is no comparison for the way Connell can simply make something sound more itelligent by using simple words. With all these literary elements and the plot based on murder, there is no big surprise that these short prose have had so much success.