THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

Summary

The story is told in first person, so we don’t explicitly learn the narrator’s name until near the end. Until then, we’ll call him “the narrator.” Here we go.

The narrator begins by telling us that Fortunato has hurt him. Even worse, Fortunato has insulted him. The narrator must get revenge. He meets Fortunato, who is all dressed up in jester clothes for a carnival celebration − and is already very drunk. The narrator mentions he’s found a barrel of a rare brandy called Amontillado. Fortunato expresses eager interest in verifying the wine’s authenticity.

So he and the narrator go to the underground graveyard, or “catacomb,” of the Montresor family. Apparently, that’s where the narrator keeps his wine. The narrator leads Fortunato deeper and deeper into the catacomb, getting him drunker and drunker along the way. Fortunato keeps coughing, and the narrator constantly suggests that Fortunato is too sick to be down among the damp crypts, and should go back. Fortunato just keeps talking about the Amontillado.

Eventually, Fortunato walks into a man-sized hole that’s part of the wall of a really nasty crypt. The narrator chains Fortunato to the wall, then begins to close Fortunato in the hole by filling in the opening with bricks. When he has one brick left, he psychologically tortures Fortunato until he begs for mercy – and we finally learn the narrator’s name: Fortunato calls him “Montresor.”

After Fortunato cries out Montresor’s name, he doesn’t have any more lines. But just before Montresor puts in the last brick, Fortunato jingles his bells. Then Montresor finishes the job and leaves him there to die. At the very end, Montresor tells us that the whole affair happened fifty years ago, and nobody has found out.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

Poe and the Macabre

Most people know Edgar Allan Poe for his macabre stories, macabre meaning gruesome. These stories of horror deal with all sorts of macabre ideas: death, decomposition, premature burial, coming back from the dead, and sorrow. Lucky for us, 'The Fall of the House of Usher' includes all of these elements, which is likely why it's his most celebrated short story. Poe is known for his Gothic fiction

Character

The narrator of the story remains nameless throughout. We learn right away that he is a childhood friend of Roderick Usher and is there for a visit. The story is told from first-person limited point of view, which means it is told from his point of view and is going to be limited to his experiences. This is important as we meet the other characters.

Roderick Usher is the narrator's friend, and he is sick. He has numerous physical ailments, but as the story unfolds, it's obvious that Roderick is suffering psychologically. He lives in fear, and it has addled his brain.

Madeline, Roderick's twin sister, is also sick, but more physically than mentally. She doesn't interact with the narrator during the story. She just sort of pops in and out - and with great effect, as you will see in the plot.

Finally, we can consider the house itself a character in this story. Yes, the house. While the house may not literally be alive, it certainly possesses some supernatural qualities that make it appear to be a living, breathing being (though much like the Usher children, its life isn't in the greatest shape). It is the house that the narrator sees both first and last in this story, and its presence is much more than just bricks and mortar.

Plot

As with any story, Poe begins his with a description of the setting. But, this is Poe, so of course the setting is dark and full of potential evil. The narrator explains that he is on his way to an old friend's house, and as he approaches the home, he becomes unsettled by the dreariness and ghastliness of his surroundings.

The narrator continues to explain that he received a letter from his old friend Roderick Usher, inviting him to come for a visit. According to the letter, Roderick has suffered 'a mental disorder which oppressed him,' so the narrator feels that he must go see the man, though he is hesitant. It is Usher and his sister, Madeline, who live in the house that is creeping the narrator out at the beginning of the story. And while he stands, sort of hesitating to approach the house, he notes that the two Ushers are the last in a long family heritage, and their death will be the end of the bloodline.

As the narrator enters the desolate house, he finds both Roderick and his sister in a severe state of depression and both appear sickly. The narrator tries to make Roderick feel better, but he is unable. Roderick adds to the seemingly supernatural quality of the house by suggesting that the house itself might be making him sick.

A few days later, Madeline dies, and the narrator and Usher take her body to a temporary tomb in the basement. As the narrator helps Roderick carry Madeline's body, he reflects on Madeline's pink cheeks and realizes that she and Roderick are actually twins. Roderick, who is saddened by the loss of his sister, spends days slipping into a sort of nervous depression.

One night, when both men cannot sleep, Roderick points that a brightly colored gas is glowing all around the house. In hopes of easing the creepy tension of the night, the two men sit and read 'Mad Trist' by Sir Launcelot Canning, a medieval romance. This, however, does not help because they begin to hear strange noises. To make the scene even more sinister, Roderick admits that he's been hearing noises for days, and he's afraid that they may have buried Madeline alive. In true Poe fashion, the wind from an on-coming storm dramatically blows open the door, and Madeline appears in the room, looking ghostly. She is able to make her way to Roderick, almost attacking him, but falls on him and dies. Roderick, realizing he has buried his sister alive, dies of shock.

The house seems to react to the loss of the twins and too begins to die, collapsing all around the dead brother and sister. The narrator barely escapes before the House of Usher falls.

Analysis (Style)Poe uses dark word choices to personify the Usher mansion

Usher Mansion: Poe's writing style is unique. His diction, or word choice, fuels the images that he conjures to create such macabre stories. His word choice is both sophisticated and chock-full of terrifying connotations, or emotional meanings, and for this story in particular, those connotations evoke fear.

'I know not how it was - but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible.'

Words like 'insufferable gloom,' 'unrelieved,' 'half-pleasurable,' 'sternest,' 'desolate,' 'terrible' are not words that are meant to make the reader want to pick up their bags for a vacation at the Usher mansion. Instead, they are words that are depressing at the least.

Poe's emotion-filled words are given to us through the narrator's thoughts, a limited point of view that adds to the feelings of claustrophobia as the story continues. He is able to create terror in the reader in several instances through his description of Usher's face, the burial of Madeline, the eerie sounds in the house, the re-appearance of Madeline, and of course, through the initial description of the Usher mansion. As the narrator begins the story, he stares at the House of Usher, in confusion, awe, and something that he can't quite put his finger on (of course, we know it's fear, but he's not quite willing to admit that yet).

'I looked upon the scene before me - upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees - with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium - the bitter lapse into everyday life - the hideous dropping off of the veil.'