1. The Tormented Life of Edgar Allan Poe
The Nightmarish Mind
of Edgar Allan Poe
“The Short Life”

2. Wrote in a Gothic Style
Deep and intense
Explorations of а world of dream and of nightmare
In his stories the past is darker, mоrе ominous and oppresses his heroes and heroines
Writing Style of Poe

3. Poe’s Characters
Many of his characters аrе filled with madness
Obsessed with the irrational side of the mind

4. The Pit and the Pendulum The Fall of the House of Usher
Tell-Tale Heart
The Cask of the Amontillado
The Masque of the Red Death
The Raven
Lenore
Famous Works
Short Stories
Poems

5. The Cask of Amontillado

6. Background
The Cask of Amontillado
Published 1846
One theory for the inspiration for story was a feud Poe had with 2 other poets
The story was somewhat controversial for focusing his story on a crime with no apparent motive, and a murderer with no apparent remorse

7. The Cask of Amontillado
Overview
The story is narrated by Montresor, who carries a grudge against Fortunato for an offense that is never explained
Montresor leads a drunken Fortunato through a series of chambers beneath his palazzo

8. The Cask of Amontillado
Overview
Although Fortunato has a horrible cough the promise of a taste of Amontillado spurs him deeper and deeper into the underground
When the two men reach the last underground chamber, Montresor chains Fortunato to the wall, builds a new wall to seal him in, and leaves him to die

9. Remorse vs. Lack of Remorse Pride Friendship Power and Respect
Literary Focus
Themes and Conflicts
Revenge
Madness
Deception
Remorse vs. Lack of Remorse
Pride
Friendship
Power and Respect
Social Clases and Social Significance within Society

10. Montresor’s Coat of Arms and motto, Nemo me impune lacessit
Literary Focus
Symbols
Montresor’s Coat of Arms and motto, Nemo me impune lacessit
Irony
The Usage of a Trowel
A foot in a blue background crushing a snake whose fangs are embedded in the foot's heel
“No one attacks me with impunity”
Both the coat of arms and motto are representative of Montresor’s lust for revenge
He will crush Fortunado for the “injuries” he has given
Fortunado belongs to a secret society called the Freemasons
Montresor says he is also a mason, but then produces a trowel used for regular masonery work
Fortunado thinks this action is trivial, but the trowel ends up playing an integral part in his demise .

11. Told in the first person by Montresor
By presenting the story in the first person, Poe puts the reader at the mercy of an unreliable narrator, a mad man, who decides what to tell and what to leave out.
Literary Focus
Point of View

12. Fortunato
Montresor's sworn enemy,
Fortunato displays no uneasiness in Montresor's company, and is unaware that his friend is plotting against him.
Fortunato is a proud connoisseur of fine wine
He is urged on by the chance of sampling some rare Amontillado

13. Luchesi
Acquaintance of Montresor's and Fortunato's
A rival wine expert of Fortunado’s
Montresor keeps Fortunato on the trail of the Amontillado by threatening to allow Luchesi to sample it first

14. Montresor
Holds a grudge against his friend Fortunato, who has committed several unnamed offenses against him
Wealthy and lives in a palazzo
Has planned murder of Fortunado
Telling the story fifty years after it has taken place he reveals no regret for his actions

15. The Masque of the
Red Death

16. The Masque of Red Death
Background
Poe’s fictional Red Death is probably based on the Black Death, which killed as many as two thirds of the population in some regions in Europe
Poe calls the plague “the Red Death” because victims oozed blood from painful sores.

17. Summary
Theme
In this story a fourteenth-century prince gives a costume party, or masque, to try to forget about the epidemic raging all around him.
Inevitibility of death (regardless how much money you have)
Human weakness and fear
Arrogance
Death

18. Allegory
Symbol
A narrative that is really a double story. One story takes place on the surface. Under the surface the story’s characters and events represent abstract ideas
Something that is itself and yet also represents something else
Can be read both as a chilling ghost story and as an allegory representing the inevitability of death.
Prospero’s name (Prospero means prosperous)
The stranger’s appearance (Dressed like the Grim Reaper or Death)
The arrangement of the seven halls
The rooms of the palace, lined up in a series, allegorically represent the stages of life.
Their colors (black=death), (red=blood)
Clock marking the inevitable passage of time.

19. Characters Prince Prospero The Stranger
Prince Prospero invites a thousand lords and ladies to escape death by living luxuriously in his castle until the pestilence passes.
To entertain his guests Prospero hosts a masquerade party that takes place in seven halls, each a different color.
At the stroke of midnight, a tall figure in a blood-splattered burial costume appears.
Prospero demands that his friends seize the intruder, but everyone is frozen with fear as the stranger slowly walks through the rooms.