The Cask of Amontillado - Book Report/Review Example

? The Cask of Amontillado and the Lottery s 6 March Edgar Allan Poe is undoubtedly one of the best American Poe had several problems in his life and it is reflected in his stories and in “The Cask of Amontillado”. This short story deals with revenge and the plot of the story also sees its main characters seek revenge against each other. Montresor and Fortunato are the two most important characters of the story and Montresor seeks revenge on Fortunato for an insult. The character of Fortunato displays pride in the story and ultimately as seen in innumerable stories proves fatal for him and leads to his downfall. This paper will throw light upon the short story “The Cask of Amontillado”. The characteristics of the story will be comprehensively presented in this paper. The later part of the paper will compare this short story to “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson. Main characters hide their feelings In “The Cask of Amontillado”, the main characters time and again hide their feelings from the readers and the same builds suspense as the stories progress. “When Montresor decides that it is time to seek revenge for the "thousand injuries of Fortunato," he does not make his feelings known. (Bookrags). The above points also make both these stories interesting and fun to read. There is a lot to learn from this story for the reader for instance one can learn that pride leads to the downfall of a person and hence every one must keep a check on pride to ensure growth and prosperity. There are many more things that a reader can learn from these short stories. Revenge Plot: In “The Cast of Amontillado”, Montresor plans to take revenge on Fortunato and the readers get to learn that revenge is a very powerful motive but a dangerous one. Montresor has shown extra ordinary planning to seek revenge on Fortunato, Poe has chosen this plot to tell the readers that revenge is something that must never be pursued and this is what the readers can learn from this short story. Even though the story is completely fictitious, it can be applied in the real world and there must be a lesson that should be learnt from it. The lesson is to not seek revenge against any one, come what may. Poe is a master at developing curiosity among the readers and the story begins very abruptly and the same develops a lot of curiosity among the readers. Poe mastered the art of arresting the readers with the first few lines of his stories and this short story is no different. It begins with a very striking quote that immediately arrests the attention of the readers. Montresor’s pride shapes up the whole story and it is found that to satisfy his wounded pride he ends up plotting against Fortunato and ultimately this leads to the death of Fortunato. The lesson is in front of all the readers to learn, we must forget everything that creates a drive to seek revenge in our minds. We get a very good message from the story that must be implemented in real life to proper. The lottery written by Shirley Jackson is regarded as one of the best short stories to have ever been written in American history, the story deals with a barbaric tradition of stoning people to death and Tessie the central character of the story succumbs to her injuries. Human nature is presented in the lottery, the barbaric tradition of stone throwing just never stops, this goes to show that human beings refrain from standing up against something which they consider inappropriate. No one stood up to save Tessie; she was killed after winning the lottery. The jumping of human beings on the bandwagon is also another important theme of this short story; we usually tend to do what others are doing. We join them regardless of the consequences; this is very shameful and should never be done. Stone throwing has been presented as a tradition in the story. “It seems as though we sometimes condemn everyday truths that we know are characteristics of most people, including ourselves, and being afraid to admit them, place the spotlight on someone else. It is sad and definitely hypocritical, but it happens all the time. And I think Shirley Jackson makes this point without having to say a word about it. It is the thousands of readers who replied to "The Lottery", in disapproval and horror that blindly proved Jackson's theories valid and unknowingly portrayed themselves as not very unlike the villagers in the short story.” (Analysis of the Lottery) The lottery was written when there was a lot of chaos in the world, it was written during the Second World War and the holocaust. It draws several parallels to Nazi Germany. Hitler controlled Germany and established a firm control over the country, his racist views were forced upon people and the anti-social people who refused to comply with his ideology got the treatment that they deserved. Similarly, when Tessie wins the lottery and the people were about to throw stones at her, she said “it is not fair” she repeated the same line again trying to dissuade the people but they did not listen and she was killed. Cruelty is another element which is very common between the Nazis and the villagers in the lottery, Nazis slaughtered the anti-social people without thinking twice so did that villagers in the lottery, these comparisons show extreme brutality. Countless Jews were slaughtered in Germany, the Germans did object to it but they just mumbled about it and it made absolutely no difference, the same happens in the lottery, there are instances of mumbling in the story but no one sands up to put an end to the barbaric tradition. “After executing a woman by stoning, the townspeople will go home to eat lunch or go back to work as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. The first paragraph says, "The whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner." The tenth paragraph says, "Well, now," Mr. Summers said soberly, "guess we better get started, get this over with, so's we can go back to work." (The Lottery) These were the similarities and the differences in these two stories. References Analysis of the Lottery. Associated Content. n.p., Retrieved from: The Lottery. A Study Guide. n.p., Web. Retrieved from: The Cast of Amontillado. In Book Rags. Web. Retrieved from: The Cask of Amontillado. In Answers. Web. Retrieved from: Read More