Cask of Amontillado and A Rose for Emily - Research Paper Example

of The “Cask of Amontillado” and “A Rose for Emily” The “Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner are two of the most important short stories in the history of English literature. These short stories have contributed greatly to the development of this genre and have invested it with seriousness that it is often considered to be lacking in. What makes an analysis of both these stories interesting is the fact that they are very similar in certain respects despite the fact that they are separated by time from each other. William Faulkner wrote during the twentieth century and mostly chronicled the mentalities of the American South and the ways in which they had changed following the abolition of slavery as a social institution. The collective mentality of the South forms the story of much of Faulkner’s works. There is thus, a dark tone that he employs throughout his work. There is also an examination of the individual psyche being a symbol of the collective in Faulkner’s works. Faulkner also looks at the absurd elements of daily life and how they may after a point of time, due to habit, not appear absurd to a society anymore. This dark tone arises from the analyses of the human psyche that Poe attempts to effect in his work. In Poe’s world, it is the absurd that appears normal, thus destabilizing the world of the reader and presenting him with no clues as to what to expect after a certain point of time. Through an analysis of different aspects of the story, this paper shall argue that the society and its larger forces form the party of the victimizers rather than the characters Montresor and Emily. “The Cask of Amontillado” presents the story of two men, Montresor and Fortunato, who are interlocked in a struggle of petty power, even though Fortunato is unaware of the same. Having been insulted at a certain point of time by Fortunato, Montresor seeks to take revenge upon him through murdering him. With this in mind, he leads him through an underground hallway at the end of which he promises a rare cask of Amontillado. When they reach the end, Montresor chains Fortunato, leaving him to die there and the reader is made aware of the world’s ignorance at the end of the story. “A Rose for Emily” talks of a family of the American South which has died leaving just one member alive- Emily. She is very introverted and prefers to stay alone in the house without even paying her taxes and as a result of this, the town is surprised when she starts an affair with a man named Homer Barron. He is thought to leave her and life continues for Emily with the support of nobody but an African American servant. Her death however, reveals the decomposed body of Homer and makes the town aware of the entire history of the woman that they thought of as a symbol of stability amidst the great changes that were happening in their society. The narrative styles of the two stories are not completely similar and this has a lot to do with the fact that the change in the person of the narrative. The figure of the narrator in “A Rose for Emily” has been a subject of great critical debate since the publication of this story (Nebeker 3). The narrator changes roles quite frequently throughout the story. He or she masquerades as an all-knowing omniscient third-person figure for a large part of the story. Later, however, the readers are made to know that the narrator does not possess the knowledge that conventional third person narrators possess. This can be seen from the end of the narrative where the existence of the decomposed body of Homer is a new knowledge for the narrator as well. Thus, the narrator too morphs into a native of the town that the story is set in. this has implications for the kind of writing styles that are adopted by the two writers. While Faulkner writes stories that have long sentences, Poe writes using both long and short sentences. The long sentences are used while describing Fortunato and the innocence of his condition till he reaches the end of the hallway. There are short terse sentences that are used to describe the madness that is the mind of Montresor. The style then becomes a formal representation of the mental states of the characters. At the end of the story, one sees this in Montresor. No answer still: I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came forth in return only a jingling of the bells. My heart grew sick- on account of the catacombs. I hastened to make an end of my labour. I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up (Poe 380-381). This can then be contrasted with a sentence from Faulkner’s story that talks of a climactic discovery- Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair (Faulkner 444). In this world of Faulkner, the most bizarre of occurrences are not considered to be out of the ordinary. As such, they are not treated different formally and this can be seen even in the writer whom he had influenced the most, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who makes clear his indebtedness in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech (Marquez). The form of the stories are thus, intrinsically connected to the thematic concerns that Faulkner and Poe try to introduce to the reader. The forms of the stories are methods through which the writers point to a world that is outside that of the story, something that is able to control all the characters in it. This then again brings one back to the idea of the society as the villain. There are several themes that emerge during the course of the two stories. Edmond Loris Volpe opines that the past of the South is what emerges during the story “A Rose for Emily”. Such a past reveals only the fact that the people of the American South had failed to move forward following the abolition of slavery (99). There is a critique in the story of the failure of the American South to move forward from its parochial ideas about society and its racial politics. This can be seen in the retaining of the African American servant in the house of Emily Grierson and the necrophilia that she indulges in. A perverted ideal of death is visible even in the Poe’s story where Montresor is ready to dole out death to Fortunato on mere pretexts of an insult that Fortunato had hurled at him. The insult must have been slight as Fortunato does not even seem to remember any part of it. Neither does he harbor any suspicion regarding Montresor. The madness that impels this perverted ideal can be seen in the motto that Montresor speaks of- “Nemo me impune lacessit (Poe 377)”. This is an indication of the narrow ideals of honor that prevailed in such societies. The two stories have several aspects that need to be analyzed in detail. The intention of the authors is one. While it has been stated that Poe’s was to look at the state of the human mind and the dark possibilities that lay within, Faulkner’s was to look at the change in the mentalities of the people of the American South after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. The necrophilia that Emily indulges in can be seen as a proof of this. The failure of the South to adjust is something that Faulkner himself is unable to come to terms with and this reflects in his story. His intention is to show this very ambivalence. The stagnation can be seen in the way the town allows Emily to be exempt from taxes. Emily’s response to the sheriff can be seen in this light- “‘See Colonel Sartoris.’ (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.) ‘I have no taxes in Jefferson. Tobe!’ The Negro appeared. ‘Show these gentlemen out.’” (Faulkner 435). However, the intention of Poe is less clear, much like that of his narrator. This is not to say that the story lack a purpose as much to say that it has an open conclusion which may be seen to say different things to different readers. The importance of literary devices in the stories need to be analyzed as well. Irony as a literary device is very important in “The Cask of Amontillado”. This story deals with the idea of the irony of friendship turning into enmity that ends in friendship. Charles N. Nevi discusses the use of irony in this story as an aspect of the story that often goes unnoticed in classrooms- “However, unless the teacher goes one step forward in discussing ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, he is doing an injustice to both the story and the students (Nevi 461)” this is one of the many voices that argue against a conventional reading of Poe that focus only on the horror of the story and the effects that it induces. An analysis of the irony in the story would enable a reader to deduce intricacies in the behavior of Montresor. For instance, the idea of honor being achieved in an insidious and deceitful way is one of the most ironic and powerful moments in the story. Such literary devices are a part of Faulkner’s story as well. His employment of the same device, irony, can be seen in this passage in the story- “When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone and a pauper, she had become humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or a penny less (Faulkner 437).” The irony then becomes a mirror of the American South’s inability to look at things in a rational manner. There is then a perversion in the very way in which things are done and the larger picture of life itself becomes ironic. The origin of the stories, that is, the indebtedness of the authors also remains to be looked into. This indebtedness in the case of Poe, according to critics like Joseph S. Schick, almost does not exist as Poe is almost completely original in his conception of certain tropes and ideas (18). Faulkner, on the other hand, owes a great deal to modernist writers who came slightly ahead of him. His style of writing and the thematic elements are in many ways similar to those of the Modernists. The non-linear narrative of the story is an example of this. For instance, the story starts with the narrator informing the reader of Emily Grierson’s death- When Miss Emily died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house… The last section of the story starts with a description of the funeral. This then points to the overt influence of the Modernists who employed shifts in chronological sequence and a stream-of-consciousness technique so as to depict what they felt was the reality of life in the twentieth century. Poe’s depictions are more attuned to the sensibilities of the nineteenth century as far as the formal aspect is concerned. This can be seen in the painfully linear plot that the story’s narrative follows throughout. The influence of society thus keeps coming through into the narrative. The symbols in the story too are important. The cask of amontillado is an important symbol and refers to the pride that often leads people to not make rational decisions. It also represents those objects that are used by the society to entice people into stimulating their own senses of pride. An important symbol in Faulkner’s story is the body of Homer. He is victimized throughout the narrative as he is used for the convenience of Emily. This happens even during his death when his body is used for necrophilia by Emily. While looking at the characters in terms of the victimizers and the victims, one places Montresor and Emily in the category of the victimizers; Fortunato and Homer in the category of the victims. This leads to many situations where there is no explanation for the outcomes within the story. The victimizer then becomes an entire society. In the case of Emily, the society and the patriarchal social setup in the form of her father dictates what she is supposed to do. Later on, the only way in which she can exercise her agency is through necrophilia and ordering an African America servant around. The entire society then is in a state of stagnation that oppresses each of its people. The notions of honor and wealth that control society can be seen to oppress the society that Montresor and Fortunato are a part of. Such notions then victimize both characters and are able to drive people to extents that are perverted. The mind is then turned insane as it is forced into configurations that it is not capable of. The villainous force in either story is not an individual but the society, according to the authors. Any analysis of victimhood needs to take this into account. Works Cited Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily”. The Portable Faulkner. New York: Vintage, 1967. Print. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado”. Selected Tales. New York: Penguin, 1994. Print. Schick, Joseph S. “The Origin of ‘The Cask of Amontillado’”. American Literature. 6 (1934): 1. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2919684 Nevi, Charles N. “Irony and ‘The Cask of Amontillado’”. The English Journal. 56 (1967): 3. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/811596 Freehafer, John. “Poe's ‘Cask of Amontillado:’ A Tale of Effect”. Jahrbuch fur Amerikastudien. 13 (1968). Web. 26 Nov. 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41155443 Nebeker, Helen E. “Emily's Rose of Love: Thematic Implications of Point of View in Faulkner's ‘A Rose for Emily’”. The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association. 24 (1970): 1. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1346461 Volpe, Edmond Loris. A Reader's Guide to William Faulkner: The Short Stories. New York: Syracuse UP, 2004. Print. "Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Nobel Lecture: The Solitude of Latin America". Web. 27 Nov. 2012 Read More