Literatura Norte Americana II

Universidade de Brasília
Madson Calil Aleixo Gomes (190033819)

Notes on M.S Found in a Bottle, The Black Cat and The Cask of Amontillado, by Edgar Allan
Poe.

M.S Found in a Bottle:

● The story follows the recounting of events of an incident at sea, by the narrator itself.
This narrator details in great lengths his rational mind, trying to persuade the reader into
believing his narrative, even though it may sound fantastical and morbid.
● Paradoxically, we're not provided any name or personal information, besides his own
deception of his mind processes. There's a lingering ambiguity above his words at all
moments.
● The incident begins when he perceives a storm forming on the horizon, only for the crew
of the ship – in which he was only a passenger – to stay oblivious not only to the coming
disaster but also his direct warnings. Thus, the disaster ensues and the narrator is left
virtually alone, since his companion has no effect on the following events.
● Such events happen on another ship, way bigger than the first one. The passengers and
the atmosphere around the ship is, I'm summary, morbid and unnerving, prompting the
narrator to hide and observe.
● Later, when he tries to communicate, the crew ignores him, just like before.
● In the last segment of the story, the ship and everyone is presumably killed in a giant
whirlpool.
The vagueness of the story's events leaves the reader utterly confused, and we're forced to
theorize. Personally, I don't believe in the existence of the second ship, although the existence of
the first one is also debatable. Maybe the second ship functions as the last thoughts of a dying
man at sea, mimicking the events in a more horrid and fantastical way. Of course, since it is a
manuscript found in a bottle, and considering the unwillingness of the narrator to share
information, it could easily be a horror story within a story, or something similar.

The Black Cat.

As one of the most famous short stories by Poe, I was already acquainted with it, but this second
reading provided a larger insight.
● The story follows an espiral of events in a man's life, who's, again, the narrator of the
story as well.
● We again lack information on the narrator, except what he's willing to say, which
comprises, mostly, his love for animals. Listing all the different animals in his possession,
he ends it talking about his favorite, a large black cat named Pluto.
 ● The narrator then describes his mood's deterioration through the years, going so far as
becoming violent towards his wife and his animais, eventually even his favorite, the cat.
During the peak of this behavior – momentarily alluded to be caused by alcohol, shifting
the blame away from him – he cut one of Pluto's eyes out completely with a pen-knife.
He describes, again, as he was possessed by a perverse feeling, again in an attempt to
shift the blame..
● With the passing days it almost sounds like this perverse feeling was being successfully
ignored by the narrator, until the fateful day when he cruelly hanged the cat from a tree,
killing him. His motive was, as described, evil for the sake of evil, as something natural
in every human being.
● In the same night, his house catches fire, and the reason behind such fire is as vague as
his crazy theories about it, but not as horrifying as the result. The image of the cat was
marked in the only surviving wall, as an apparition or a warning.
● For the next few days/months, the narrator felt no remorse but missed the cat's company
at best, wishing for another animal of the same species to replace him. Coincidentally, he
encounters a cat in the bar, to which the owner of the place has no acknowledgement for.
The cat follows the narrator home and he adopts it. However, we see a repeat in the
narrator's behavior, almost mimicking his stance to the first cat. This time, his character
spirals down the whole way, until the climax of the story in which he kills his wife in a
furious attack with an axe. The cat was nowhere to be seen.
● In the end, the police shows up and, while he was successful in hiding the body, his mind
– which I like to compare to a serial killer's one – is so deranged that he tried to show it to
the cops. What appears, tho, is probably better described as a monster of his own deeds.
Akin to the first story, we have no reasons to believe the narrator. He's again willing to retain
information and create marvelous reasons as to why he's not just an evil person, as evidenced by
his attempts to shift the blame to something else. The cat however seems to represent evil in
some way, since we see the pattern of a cat being present, and his mind state spiraling down,
culminating in an evil act. Once more, the existence of the second cat is open to debate, from his
utterly strange presentation in the story, to his vanishing at the end.

The Cask of Amontillado

This story is, in my opinion, one about revenge, in the most perverse form of it. The story is
summarized as follows:
● The two main characters, Montresor, our infamous narrator, and Fortunato seem to know
each other for some time. Fortunato is presented as an specialist in wine, and with this
information, Montresor has the perfect lure for him: a cask of amontillado, a specific and
rare Spanish wine.
● The naiveness of Fortunato shows up for the first time of many when he accepts to follow
Montresor down a certain catacomb to retrieve the wine. This naiveness is better
 exemplified tho in their conversation about the Montresor's family arms, depicting a clear
act of vengeance with the snake biting the one who stepped on it.
● During the descent, Montresor makes sure that Fortunato is drunk, providing him alcohol,
until they reach the deepest part of the catacombs, decorated with lots of human bones.
● When Fortunato's drunkness became ideal, Montresor was successful in chaining him to
the wall. He then proceeds to build a wall at the entrance, to which Fortunato holds on to
his naiveness as the last bit of hope, saying that it's all a bad joke. At last, we conclude
that Fortunato eventually died while chained to the wall, with Montresor getting away
with his terrible deed.
From the three narrators explored here, Montresor is probably the most successful of them. The
story is also the most realistic one, in terms of theming. Although we have a name to work with
now, the narrator is still unreliable. We don't know what Fortunato did to hurt his name, or
dishonor him, we're just vaguely alluded to it. Thus, Fortunato demise has a real possibility of
being a horrendous murder without much substance, as much as it can be a story about revenge.