Imagery Use example essay topic

The Cask of Amontillado In the short story The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allen Poe uses imagery to relay the atmosphere and the feelings of the setting and character. We find that he uses this imagery to talk about a moment, an attitude and places. Foreshadowing is also used to let the audience know how he intended to interact the other character. It lets the reader know and understand why certain behaviors and actions take place. Without his extensive use of imagery and brief flirt with foreshadowing, the effectiveness of getting the idea of this story across to the reader may not have happened.

One of his first uses of imagery is when he refers to an evening as one of "supreme madness of the carnival season" (173). This allows the reader to generate their own opinion of what type of madness exist during the carnival season. If a reader has been to a carnival before, he might find himself visualizing the characters in a setting not unlike one he has experienced. The way this is imagined will differ according to what the reader has experienced.

I imagined it as being comparable to visiting Disneyland Paris during the peek season. Being that it was during the evening there were probably few children there, which in my memory might be more like attending a wine fest similar to the ones held in Germany. In this same paragraph, Poe referred to the way a drunken Fortunato greeted him as "excessive warmth' for he had been drinking much". (173).

This was relatively easy for me to image because I've experienced many people impaired by alcohol. I envisioned a stumbling man forcing himself upon the author to give him a hug or even an over-exaggerated handshake. From this passage alone, I was able to smell Fortunato's alcohol stricken breath. The imagery use to describe the vault lacked the ability to clearly give the reader the intended picture. One was led to believe that if there was wine stored in this vault, then it was a cellar of some type. By describing the vault as being "lined with human remains" and had bones mixed about, one is left with his own interpretation of what to picture (176).

Having read this story four times, I didn't imagine the same thing twice for this vault. Perhaps that was Poe's intent. Whatever the case, it made the story different each time it was read. Poe did a good job of letting the readers know that this greeting wasn't one that was bothersome just from the use of the word warmth. In an earlier passage Poe cleverly used foreshadowing that predicted how he would behave once he seen Fortunato again. He explained to the audience how he would deceive Fortunato in to believing that he had nothing but good will for him.

Poe stated, "It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will". (173). It was made clear that Poe wanted Fortunato to think he had no intentions of getting revenge. He felt this was the only way to truly avenge the wrong done to him.

This story was cleverly put together and arranged in an order to that took maximum use of imagery. It allowed the reader to picture setting based on the understanding to the words used to describe them, thus changing the way each reader interpret the story.

Bibliography

Poe, Edgar A. "The Cask of Amontillado."Literature and the Writing Process". Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day and Robert Funk. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002.173-177.