Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart - Book Report/Review Example

A thorough and close introspection into the stories will easily inform its readers that the plots of both the fictions are constituted deliberately in a format that will arouse the feeling of suspense among them. In the story, “Cask of Amontillado”, the use of flashback is to put stress on the episode on which the total mystery of the story is banking upon. Montresor’s motive of the murder is for the readers to solve and detect the mystery without a detective in the story and hence, the use of flashback in this regard becomes more essential.

The last few sentences of the story clarify the motive of the writer. The expression of Montresor and his mentioning about the period of murder builds horror in the story and recall of the hanging of Fortunato’s body from the chain in the niche, where Montresor abandoned it, almost takes the breath of the readers. All these effects are incorporated in the plot of the story through the help of the flashback mechanism. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the revelation of the crime and the recovery of the body also take place by the use of flashback which is brilliantly represented and would not have been at all possible to wind up the story so brilliantly without the mechanism of flashback. Answer 3)Imagery in Poe’s story can definitely be compared to the images of Keats’ poem.

The only difference with the images of the great romantic Keats with that of Poe is that Poe’s images are horrifying and gruesome that scares and agitates the heartbeat of any reader. In both the stories, the image of an old man, eyes of a vulture, a dark night, an unnamed city and year, the gruesome murder and the circular pattern of killing along with the similar fashion of revelation of the dead body in both the stories form strong images that appeal to the senses of the readers.