The Casque of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, and A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner - Essay Example

A Rose for Emily centers on Emily Grierson, a southern woman “[Who] looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water.”  She was born of aristocratic descent and had a superiority-complex over most people. She met a northern street-worker, Homer Barron, who was popular amongst the townsmen. When the two met, they quickly fell in love with one another, but in order to ensure that love would be forever hers, Emily murdered Homer Barron. Both stories have their similarities and differences.

 During a festival, Montresor brought the drunken Fortunato into a cellar where he would later be bound by chains and sealed behind a wall of bricks. He had tools ready to work his deed and played a joke on Fortunato, a Freemason, by telling Fortunato that he too was a Mason. Montresor revealed a trowel, a tool used by Stonemasons who have nothing to do with Freemasons. That trowel would later be used to seal Fortunato behind a brick wall. Emily murdered Homer Barron by tricking him into ingesting rat poison.

When she went into a drugstore she was hasty and determined to obtain a strong weapon. "I want some poison," she said.”"Yes, Miss Emily. What kind? For rats and such? I'd recom--""I want the best you have. I don't care what kind."Barron is later revealed to be the type of man who did not want to become married. In fear of losing him, Emily decided to murder Barron. The two murders end up leaving both victims sealed in a room. But in Emily’s case, the victim shares the bed with her in her bedroom.

The differences in the murders lie in the intent. Montresor kills Fortunato to rid him of the world. Emily murders Homer to keep him to herself. The Casque of Amontillado never reveals what Fortunato did to shame Montresor’s family. A Rose for Emily implies Emily’s will to murder Homer and the actions she took afterward. Emily’s mindset is revealed when her father passed away. She held his body captive inside her house and as lost in her denial she constantly fended off officials by telling them that her father was not deceased.

Emily needed an alpha-male in her home; Barron’s fear of commitment triggered Emily’s motivation to end him without any guilt. Montresor grows remorseful as he exacts his vengeance on Fortunato. When sealing Fortunato behind a brick wall, Montresor calls, "Fortunato!’ No answer. I called again – ‘Fortunato!’ 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; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so.

”In the end, both killers got what they wished for. They took advantage of their victim’s weaknesses and used them to enforce their own disposition.  Whether by love or by hate, one can never be too careful. And if you turn your back for one second, a knife may be there to greet you.