Modular Instruction for Literary Criticism

Short Story

Learning outcome:
Critique E. A. Poe’ short story –“The Cask of Amontillado.”

Activity

What is the dominant mood of the story? Explain the repeated references to niter.

Identify the following:

________1. It is the origin of the detective story.

________2. This is the most famous story collection in the Middle Ages.
________3. It is one of the masterpieces of Italian literature.
________4. It does not have any pretension to artistry.
________5. In this story category, the vital element of meaning is sacrificed for the sake of atmospheric
effect.

The 20th century is the golden age of the short story. It stands out and it is the form for which the United
States has given the most significant contribution to the literature of the 20 th century.
Story telling is the earliest literary form man has invented. The earliest prose narrative of which we have
a record are a collection of tales, dated approximately 4000 B.C., entitled Tales of the Magicians. Other
such collections have come from the Hindus, the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Hebrews. Aesop’s fables
were written about 500 B.C.. The account of Genesis of the conflict between Cain and Abel, the stories
of Salome, Ruth, Joseph and his brothers, of Daniel and the Lion, and in the New Testament of the
prodigal son belong to the short story form. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance supplied us with the
beast fable, picaresque tales (pertaining to adventurers or rogues) and romances.
The most famous story collection in the Middle Ages was Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, completed
about 1384, one of the great masterpieces of Italian literature. The 100 tales are set in a narrative
framework that describes the time and occasion of the story telling.
In the world of the Decameron, no intervention of grace is envisaged; it is a world from which all serious
concern for revelation is absent. One Decameron tale is set in a nunnery where the only male worker is
the gardener. In no time the nuns, including the Mother Superior, got pregnant, and the garden
becomes the graveyard for unwanted babies.
Edgar Allan Poe was perhaps the first to conceive of the short story as belonging to the highest form of
art and to suggest the formal discipline necessary for achieving it. It must be emphasized that there is
nothing accidental about a successful artistic work. Much of what goes into the creation of the short
story is a lot of hard work and discipline.
Since 1851 a few misconceptions have emerged. Poe, to begin with, made two categories of the story:
the story of ratiocination and the story of atmosphere. The story of ratiocination is the origin of the
detective story while the story of atmosphere, the vital element of meaning is sacrificed for the sake of
atmospheric effect.
Although the earliest collection of narrative prose was dated about 4000 B.C., E.A. Poe (1809-1849) is
considered the “father of the short story” because he was the one who first defined the term. He was
the one who gave the most definitive direction to the short story.
Read the story “The Cask of Amontillado” and comment how E.A. Poe had structured it to get its unique
or single effect, its tone and atmosphere – of horror, mystery, danger, of impending catastrophe.

Comments and questions

1. J. R. Hammond has suggested that a chief reason Poe’s writing continues to be popular is that
“his strength lay in the description of mental and emotional states, in removing layers of artifice
from man’s animal nature and affording a terrifying glimpse into the violence and sadism
present beneath.” Is this comment evident in the story? Explain.

2. Poe’s story is as heavily laced with irony as it is with revenge. To what extent does your first
reading of passages in the story coincide with your recognition that they are ironical?

3. How is it entirely in keeping with Montresor’s character to insist repeatedly that Fortunato turn
back out of the catacomb? How will that later enhance his pleasure in the revenge he takes?

4. Comment on the functions of the costumes of Montresor and Fortunato, on the effect of
Montresor’s remark, “My heart grew sick—on account of the dampness of the catacombs”; on
the irony of the final sentence.

5. Does Montresor fulfill the stipulation for revenge given in the opening paragraph? Comment on
moral justice in Poe’s tale.

References: Literary Criticism by E. K. Tiempo

Interpreting Literature by Knickerbocker/ Reninger/Bratton/ Leggett
Prepared by: Ms. Marites Havana Valeros