Comparison of Characters in Edgar Allan Poe’s Stories: Montresor, Emily, and The Old Man

Literary analysis

In the stories of “Cask of Amontillado”, “Tell of Tale Heart” and “A Rose for Emily” the main characters have killed someone close to them. These stories have some differences but also some similarities. Montressor it’s a smart guy and he has some knowledge about wine. He engaged Fortunato by his expertise in wine. Fortunato is an expert in selling wine in Italy he would never expect the ideas of his friend. Montresor is evil because he started to plan how he going to kill Fortunato.

He has the need for revenge. He stated “A thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” These words, are unclear how Fortunato insulted Montressor making a plan for his death but his mad. In addition, Montressor has no sympathy and he has some set of rules about how he will get revenge on his friend, “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity” and “the avenger must make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.”

Montressor has a master plan of how he will bring Fortunato to his house. Montressor “lives in a palazzo beneath which lie extensive catacombs.” They were in the carnival and Montressor bringing Fortunato into the basement when are a bunch of skeletons linger around and he knows Fortunato drank some wine and is already drunk. Montressor decide to chain up Fortunato and he is going to bury him alive. Montressor, speaks about his family and ancestry and how his fate was shaped by them but to be so cruel no one would kill his friends the way he did.

According to, the story “The Tell-Tale Heart.” by Edgar Allen Poe, this old man appeared to be in a complete distress, he alway was dreadfully nervous and he mentions, “why will you say that I am mad” he appeared to be nervous he watched this old guy and this guy had a blue vulture eye and he watched him every single night at the same time around 12.

Sadly, he kills the guy and he dismembered him and decided to hide his body. After, the murder “the fear, outrage, and paranoia” this guy reveals that he killed the old man because he still was hearing the old man’s heart pounding and he thought the polices will be able to listen to the old man heartbeat. As he mentions I am not mad and he keeps repeating over and over. At some point, it seems it has a moral of insanity or just really the paranoid smart him.

Moreover, in the story of “A Rose for Emily” Emily Grierson was a young girl but her father kept captivated and isolate from the outside world. “She lives on into old age in the house” and “filled with dust and shadow.”. Her house was old and never was fixed. Emily’s father passed and she was having a breakdown due to his death but in her mind, she continues to believe her father still alive and she kept his body for a couple of days.

Emily was single until late thirty. She was having a lot of problems with the town peoples to pay for her taxes. Finally, she met Homer Barron when they were building the sidewalk and Emily caught some interest in him until the point she married him. Although, everyone disapproved of this relationship because he is too low class and Emily belongs to high class.

One day, Emily decided to buy some arsenic which she never explained for what. Years later, When she passed away they find a man skeleton in her room which appear to be Homer Barron’s body. That is to in the three-story to say they have some similarities, for example, Emily not only killed her husband but she was egocentric about her feeling. Emily couldn’t stand the idea to pitch herself alone. Like, Montressor, couldn’t take the insult by Fortunato but all reality he just imagines this insult.

This persona is preoccupied with their own feeling and emotional expectations. No one really cared about what they did wrong but neither has any sympathy for their close one. Additionally, the three main characters have something in common they killed their victim in grotesque and heart-rending. In “The Tell-Heart’ is a wacko guy he decided to dismember this old man. Benjamin Rush analyzed the essay and he developed theories of insanity. He believed this guy was insane. Although he confessed to killing the old man he does recognize good and evil.

Works Cited

1. Amper, Susan. “How to Write about ‘The Cask of Amontillado.’” Bloom's How to Write about Edgar Allan Poe, Chelsea House, 2017. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=17443&itemid=WE54&articleId=45566.
2. Baraban, Elena V. “The Motive for Murder in ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ by Edgar Allan Poe.” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, vol. 58, no. 2, 2004, pp. 47–62. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1566552.
3. Benton, Richard P. 'The Cask of Amontillado: Overview.' Reference Guide to Short Fiction, edited by Noelle Watson, St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1420006471/GLS?u=edis78478&sid=GLS&xid=eb48bcd6.
4. Matthey Bynum, Paige. “‘Observe How Healthily—How Calmly I Can Tell You the Whole Story’: Moral Insanity and Edgar Allan Poe's ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’” 'The Tell-Tale Heart' and Other Stories - Edgar Allan Poe, New Edition, Chelsea House, 2009. Bloom'sLiterature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid= 17443&itemid=WE54&articleId=46911.
5. Priddy, Anna. “How to Write about ‘A Rose for Emily.’” Bloom's How to Write about William Faulkner, Chelsea House, 2017. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=17443&itemid=WE54&articleId=45934.
6. Stone, Edward. “Usher, Poquelin, and Miss Emily: the Progress of Southern Gothic.” Bloom's Literary Themes: The Taboo, Chelsea House, 2010. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=17443&itemid=WE54&articleId=2765.