A Stylistic Analysis on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado

YangSai fei

【Abstract】The Cask of Amontillado is one of Poes best-known horror short stories. Based on Stylistics， this paper attempts to analyze this story from the aspects of themes， characterization， point of view， syntactic and lexical features， to reveal Poes excellent skills and the artistic charm.

【Key words】The Cask of Amontillado； Edgar Allan Poe； Stylistics

Edgar Allen Poe is a productive writer in the 19th century with diverse works. The Cask of Amontillado is one of his best-known horror short stories， about a man taking fatal revenge on a friend.

THEMES. CHARACTERIZATION. POINT OF VIEW

Themes of this story are always interpreted as betrayal and revenge. Betrayal drives the action in this story for Fortunato trusts in Montresor but dies of Montresors betrayal； Montresor murders Fortunato as the punishment and revenge on him for the unknown insulting and Fortunatos pride；

Montresor is brutal， cunning， and vengeful. He plays tricks to Fortunato， luring him into catacomb and buring him alive. Fortunato is a victim，but arrogant and alcoholic. His blind trust of Montresor leaves himself vulnerable to fend back.

In this story， Montresor is an unreliable narrator for he uses his subjective experience of Fortunatos insult to name himself judge and executioner， but never specifies his motive. He confesses this story 50 years after its occurrence； such a long passage of time makes the narrative even more unreliable.

FIGURE OF SPEECH

1. Symbolism

Above Montresor family motto， the picture that “a heel smashing a serpent's head as it sinks its fangs into the heel” （Poe 3） symbolizes Montresor， like a sneaky snake will merciless take revenge on Fortunato； Fortunatos journey from the earth to the underground catacomb， symbolizes his movement from freedom to confinement for he moves into smaller spaces， farther away from fresh air. When he is eventually walled up inside a man-sized crypt， that also means his complete loss of freedom.

2. Irony

Fortunato means “fortunate” in Italian， which may imply that Fortunato is blessed with good fortune， but he is ironically walled up by Montresor in the catacombs at last； The carnival is a time for gaiety， happiness and fun however Montresor selects this period of time to commit his cruel， cold-blooded murder， which is very ironic to the carnival atmosphere； Montresor toasts to Fortunatos “long life”， which is ironically his wicked wish for he takes Fortunatos life with his own hands without mercy and hesitation.

3. Pun

Fortunato has mentioned a word “mansons”， referring to a secret society of brothers， while Montresor replies insidiously with a visual pun， declaring that he is a “mason”—a bricklayers， by showing his trowel； Fortunato has pleaded， “Let us be gone.” What he wants to express is to go back home but Montresor replies “Yes， let us be gone.” Here “gone” has taken the meaning of death.

SYNTACTIC AND LEXICAL FEATURES

1. Sentence Structure

This story has 89 paragraphs with 2，334 words，of which 73 paragraphs with 1，100 words are dialogues， a large part on the whole. （Jia 65） In the beginning， most are long complex sentences about the narrators thoughts or environment descriptions to make readers tense. But dialogues are in rather short and brief sentences. On the whole， simple sentences occupy a larger proportion but those long and short sentences are appearing in turn to evoke different feelings. Those italic sentences are deviation in language with specific meanings to attract readers. “At length I would be avenged.”[…]（Poe 1，5）.

2. Diction

In diction， Poe uses many formal or grand and borrows some from Italian and French. “Fortunato， Montresor， Luchesi” are all Italian names. “Flambeaux” ， “dor” ， and “azure” are all French words. “gesticulation”， “ignoramus” are used in a formal way. Those difficult words and its complex sentences and mysterious plots make this short story to be a writerly text.

In this story， Poe infuses his great talent in language， making it more ambiguous and interesting to decipher. The stylistic analysis can make readers from multiple angles appreciate literary works and have a better understanding.

References：

[1]Poe，Edgar Allan.The Cask of Amontillado.Frederick：Recorded Books.1999.

[2]Silverman，Kenneth.New Essays on Poes Major Tales.New York：Cambridge University Press，1993.

作者簡介：楊賽菲（1989.3-），女，山東臨沂人，西安外國語大學，2014級碩士，研究方向：英語語言文學。