"The Cask of Amontillado" is a powerful tale of revenge. Montresor, the sinister narrator of this tale, pledges revenge upon Fortunato for an insult. Montresor intends to seek vengeance in support of his family motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit."("No one assails me with impunity.") On the coat of arms, which bears this motto, appears " [a] huge human foot d'or, in a field of azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are embedded in the heel." It is important for Montresor to have his victim know what is happening to him. Montresor will derive pleasure from the fact that "...as Fortunato slowly dies, the thought of his rejected opportunities of escape will sting him with unbearable regret, and as he sobers with terror, the final blow will come from the realization that his craving for the wine has led him to his doom." (Quinn 500) In structure, there can be no doubt, that both Montresor's plan of revenge and Poe's story are carefully crafted to create the desired effect.

The narrator tries to comfort and rescue Roderick from an illness in which the exterior self has been lost to the interior world of the imagination. The isolation of Roderick's life from outer reality can be seen in the atmosphere surrounding the mansion, which seems to arise from the decayed trees and dank tarn. Roderick's fantasy world is like that of an artist: his music; his literature which deals with extremes of the human imagination; and his art that portrays a vault which is illuminated from no visible source but is "...bathed...in ghastly...splendor." Roderick, unlike an artist, has lost control of his fantasy world so that it has become all of reality. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," Poe explores the inner workings of the human imagination but, at the same time, cautions the reader about the destructive dangers within. When fantasy suppresses reality and the physical self, as in Roderick's case, what results is madness and mental death. Madeline's return and actual death reunites the twin natures of their single being, claiming Roderick as a "victim to the terrors that he had anticipated." The true focus of this story is the narrator's reaction to and understanding of these strange events. Even to look into the dark imagination where fantasy becomes reality is to evoke madness. That is why Roderick twice refers to the narrator as "Madman" in the final scene. The narrator has made a journey into the underworld of the mind and is nearly destroyed by it; however, he manages to escape and turns to watch as the "House of Usher" crumbles into "...the deep and dank tarn. According to Edward H. Davidson in his book Poe: A Critical Study, "The Fall of the House of Usher" can be interpreted as "a detailed account of the derangement and dissipation of an individual's personality." The house itself becomes the "symbolic embodiment of this individual." The fissure or the crack in the decaying mansion, which is noted by the narrator near the beginning of the story, represents "an irreconcilable fracture in the individual's personality." Roderick represents the mind or the intellect, while Madeline represents the portion of personality that we refer to as the senses (hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling). During the course of the story, the intellect Roderick tries to detach itself from its more physically oriented twin Madeline. This can be seen in Roderick's aversion to his own senses as well as by his premature entombment of his twin sister. Living without Madeline (that is without the senses), Roderick's condition deteriorates. He begins to suffer from an "...intolerable agitation of the soul." At the end of the story, Madeline returns from her premature tomb to claim the maddened Roderick, " a victim to the terrors he had anticipated." As the two are reunited in death (the mind can neither live nor die without its physical counterpart, the senses), the house ( a symbol of a now deranged individual) crumbles into the "deep and dank t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Black Cat, Roderick Madeline, Heart Poe, House Usher, God God, Cask Amontillado, Mardi Gras, Fiend Intemperance, Tell-Tale Heart, Black Cat', house usher, tell-tale heart, poe's story, roderick madeline, fall house usher, dank tarn, evil eye, natural causes, fall house, family motto, story narrator, motto nemo impune, succession natural causes, family motto nemo, writes story perspective,
Approximate Word count = 4965
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page double spaced)