CASK OF AMONTILLADO - EDGAR ALLAN POE
AUTHOR'S BIOGRAPHY
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his
poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and
the macabre.
He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in
the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the
country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally
considered the inventor of the detective
fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the
emerging genre of science fiction. He
was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through
writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.
Poe was born
in Boston,
the second child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his
mother died the following year. Thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John
and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted
him, but Poe was with them well into young adulthood. Tension developed later
as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred
by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man. Poe
attended the University of Virginia for one semester
but left due to lack of money. Poe quarreled with Allan over the funds for his
education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at
this time that his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with the anonymous
collection Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827),
credited only to "a Bostonian". With the death of Frances Allan in
1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement. However, Poe later
failed as an officer cadet at West Point,
declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and he ultimately parted ways
with John Allan.
Poe switched his
focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals
and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His
work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia,
and New York City. In Richmond in 1836, he
married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In
January 1845, Poe published his poem "The Raven"
to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two
years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own
journal The Penn (later renamed The Stylus),
though he died before it could be produced. Poe died in Baltimore on October 7,
1849, at age 40; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously
attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera,
drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.
Poe and his works
influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in
specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography.
Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films,
and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an
annual award known as the Edgar Award for
distinguished work in the mystery genre.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
"The Cask of
Amontillado" incorporates Carnival and
the Freemasons, both of which would have been widely
known to Poe’s audience, in order to advance Montresor’s plans for revenge.
The Freemasons are an international, fraternal
society that was established to support its members’ moral and spiritual
values. The group has been historically composed of extremely wealthy men and
engaged in secret rituals. During Poe’s time, the group was considered
sacrilegious.
Carnival is the massive public celebration before
Catholic Lent that consists of parades, circuses, elaborate costumes, and
excessive consumption of alcohol, meats, and other indulgences restricted by
Lent. People often wear masks to conceal their identities and create a greater
sense of social unity.
Both of these historical
points allow Poe to tell his story. First, Carnival creates a chaotic setting
where no one would notice Montresor leading Fortunato into the catacombs.
Second, in making Fortunato a Freemason, Poe implies that Fortunato is an
unlikable character.
EXPECTATIONS / PREDICTIONS ABOUT THE TEXT
I think this story talks about crime and revange.
CONNECTION BETWEEN LITERARY WORK AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
There have been stories as long
as there have been people to tell them, many critics trace the beginnings of
the short story as a genre of written prose literature consciously developed as
an art form to the nineteenth century. Previously in the West there had been
great ages of epics memorized or extemporized orally, narrative poetry, drama,
and the novel, but it was not until the early 1800s that critics began to
describe the short story as a specific art form with its own rules and
structures. In Europe, Honore de Balzac and others were already writing and
theorizing about the new form. An early American voice in the discussion was
Poe's.
LITERARY MOVEMENT THE AUTHOR BELONGS TO
Few writers exist outside
of the currents of the times in which they live, and Poe is no exception. He is
clearly a product of his time, which in terms of literature, is called the
Romantic era. The Romantic movement was one which began in Germany, moved
through all of Europe and Russia, and, almost simultaneously, changed the
entire course of American literature.
COUNTRY
United States of America
GENRE
Literary Fiction;
Quest; Tragedy
DID YOU CONFIRM YOUR PREDICTIONS?
Yes, I have confirmed
my predictions and they are correct. This story talks about crime and revenge.
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