Deconstruction in The Cask of Amontillado - Essay Example

College Deconstruction in “The Cask of Amontillado” In some literary works, some words used do not have stable references. This makes audience make assumptions about the way language has been used to represent reality. Poe, in “The Cask of Amontillado”, uses some contradicting terms and events in his literary work. The contradiction in his work has to be exposed in order to understand the meaning below the surface. This technique of exposing the hidden meaning of a literary work is called theory of deconstruction. The lens of deconstruction theory is used to understand “The Cask of Amontillado” by Poe Edgar. Allan Poe was born in in 1809, in Boston. His father was called David Poe while the mother was Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins. He lost his parents before he was three, and he had to move to Virginia to live with a wealthy tradesman called John Allan. John took Poe as one of his sons. Poe went to private school and conflicts occurred between him and his guardians when he decided to pursue literary works. He attended university of Virginia, but his dropped after the first year. He had gambling debts and his guardians refused to settle the debts. He joined the army and became sergeant major. He later quit the army. He wrote many literary works. He wrote many poems when he was in West point. His life became miserable when he became a heavy drinker and smoker. He went through many problems in his live that helped him write many poems. His nature of being a heavy drinker is even realized in “The Cask of Amontillado”. His literary talent would not have been that interesting if were not the way his behavior and character influenced his writing. His love for alcohol helped him incorporating the abuse of alcohol in his work. A clear evidenced in “The Cask of Amontillado”, where he used Fortunato show the effects of heavy drinking in the society. The names that have been used in Poe’s work have some hidden meaning. They are open for different interpretations. These words have given many readers hard times when they are trying to analyze the literary work. A word like Amontillado could have been used in the work to show the amount of a certain thing. This is because its Italian meaning is “amount”. It could represent the quantity of revenge that Montresor has for Fortunato. The name sherry could be used to mean a titular amontillado. Therefore, in Italian, it represents a Montilla wine. Therefore, there is a “relationship between the way amontillado is produced and the way Montresor is using Fortunato” (Lewis, 179). Theory of deconstruction is further illustrated trough names used on the Poe’s work and some activities that are taking place. Meanings of the names that are used are related to the activities that take place in this literary work. One of the related activities includes the way Montresor is treating Fortunato and the process that is involved during the production of Montilla wine. “Montilla wine is manufactured by allowing yeast to grow in a pipe. This yeast can only grow under certain conditions. These conditions include leaving two spaces open on the cask that is used. The wine should be protected from oxygen in order to allow fermentation to take place. If oxygen is allowed to have contact with the yeast, the wine will not be produced with the required standards. This entire process should result in production of sweet wine” (Lewis, 181). This process of manufacturing mantilla wine is directly related to the process that Montresor uses in revenging on Fortunato. Montresor views Fortunato as his sweet pretender who has been induced by alcohol. Montresor’s behavior seems to be sweet to Fortunato. This is because his behavior has been induced with alcohol and he not able to realize Montresor’s intention. Montresor enjoys the alcohol effect on Fortunato since he knows he (Montresor) is going to achieve his goal. The alcohol content in Fortunato’s body prevents him from refining himself. Another contradiction in the story comes out when the story fails to define the theme of revenge. The readers should have clearly understood the reasons for revenge in order to trust the work. Therefore, the story would have been more trustworthy if Fortunato and Montresor had solved their issues in a more civilized way. Montresor should have talked about the injustices that he had gone through because of Fortunato. He mocks Fortunato with his words. He tells Fortunato he is a mason and he jokes about some masonry activities. This makes readers sympathize with Fortunato, the transgressor. This affects the theme of revenge because Fortunato is being sympathized yet Montresor should revenge on him. Readers also sympathizes Fortunato, antagonist, when he starts coughing. Readers should sympathize with Montresor, the protagonist, but this turns out differently. This brings about the contradiction on the theme of the story. In Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor tells Fortunato, “’Yes, for the love of God’” (Poe, 1263). These words have ironic meanings. Montresor did not mean love’s God. This is because the situation between them did not portray signs of love. Montresor was revenging on Fortunato, yet he (Montresor) is replying to Fortunato about God’s love. This reply contradicts with the situation. Montresor is just echoing what Fortunato is saying. This reveals Montresor’s pride. The real situation is hidden by Montresor’s echo because he replies Fortunato as if they were in good terms. His echo shows the hidden relation between him and Fortunato (Stott, 85). Montresor could also be mocking Fortunato. Some sentences in Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” have also been used to mean different thing. Montresor wants to revenge on Fortunato. This means Fortunato is his enemy. Contradiction comes up when Montresor calls Fortunato “my friend” (Poe, 1243) many times. Montresor does not literally mean Fortunato is his friend. He calls him “my friend” so that he can hide his bad motives on Fortunato (Stott, 86). These words ensure that Fortunato does not realize Montresor’s revenge plan. This keeps the story flowing because if Fortunato would realize Montresor’s plan, then the goal of the story would not have been achieved. There is a relationship between Montresor’s actions on revenge and the process of manufacturing amontillado. Fortunato did not put on the mask during the carnival. A link between the process of revenging on Fortunato and the one for manufacturing amontillado is, “a container for holding the created work is needed. Cask is used in holding the amontillado that has been manufactured” (Lewis, 181). In Montresor’s process of revenging, cell is used to hold Fortunato. This cell acts as the container for holding the work that has been created. Here, work created is Fortunato. Poe used cask amontillado to show how Montresor used his tactics to revenge on Fortunato. From the eye of deconstruction, we can glean that Poe chose the right title because the process of producing amontillado corresponds to the way Montresor captured Fortunato. The two processes have the same ways of achieving the final goals (Delaney, 35). Poe is the true character of the story. He is the true Fortunato and the true Montresor. This means that, the flow of the story reflects on Poe’s experiences in life. In real life, Poe went through many challenges and sufferings. These suffering correspond with the sufferings that both Fortunato and Montresor went through (Poe, 1243). Poe never had a chance to revenge the challenges he went through in his life, but he created a character in the story show how wished to revenge. This could imply that Montresor was justified to revenge. This writing helped Poe think he has revenge everything bad that was done to him, but in reality, he did not undertake any revenge. This story is full of contradictions. It is supposed to be a story of revenge. Montresor has been wronged and he gets justice at the end by revenging in Fortunato. Montresor is the one who acts as the driving force of the whole story. He is the narrator of the story, and he punishes Fortunato with impunity. He does not give genuine reasons for the punishment. His reasons are ambiguous and full of contradictions. Through Montresor’s narration of the story, we find that he is an unreliable narrator because he does not give the full details of the information on the way Fortunato had wronged him. He says he bears a thousand injuries but does not explain how Fortunato caused the injuries. Although he is the narrator, his information is not reliable. From the lack of detailed reasons for revenge, the theme of revenge is made unbelievable. The final word, “In pace requie scat”, used by Montresor was a sign of pity. He pitied Fortunato after revenging on him. He is done with Fortunato. His anger is gone. This is shown in the story where he shows concern by even giving his victims chances to escape. He only pities the victim after satisfying his desires. This captures the readers and makes them empathize with Montresor. Love always turns to hate but in Poe’s story, hatred turned to affection. When the story starts, readers see Fortunato as the bad character. This is because of the way Montresor describes him. He is seen as bad person who has injured Montresor a thousand times. Montresor is angry at him and wants to revenge all the injustices. This hatred turns to affection after he satisfies his desires. The readers also sympathize with Fortunato after what Montresor has done to him. The story has been written using characters that can represent the real life of the author. Poe has used fictional characters, but these two, Montresor and Fortunato, represents the challenges he has gone through in life. He has also used the title of the story to relate to processes that take place in the story. The title relates to the revenge process that Montresor is planning. Montresor revenge can be used to show how Poe is feeling about his life challenges. He wishes to revenge, but the only place he can that is through his writing. However, deconstruction can be used in this story to show the way Poe expressed his life challenges. Work cited Delaney, Bill. "Poe's the Cask of Amontillado." The Explicator. 64.1 (2005): 33-35. Print. Lewis, Michael J. "Refining a Fortunato Amontillado." The Explicator. 69.4 (2011): 179-183. Print. Poe, Edgar A. The Cask of Amontillado. Charlottesville, Va: University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center, 1993. Internet resource. Stott, St G. J. "Poe's the Cask of Amontillado." The Explicator. 62.2 (2005): 85-88. Print. Read More