“the cask of amontillado” - · pdf filedo not start taking notes until i tell...
Post on 06-Feb-2018
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Do not start taking notes until I tell
you what to write. Listen, absorb,
then record important info only!
Edgar Allan Poe
Mini Bio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-387NMCR6w
Edgar Allan Poe
• Developed characters whose sanity is questionable.
– Which point of view deals with unreliable narrators?
• Father of “the short story”
Edgar Allan Poe Bio
• Most of his stories deal with death and murder.
• He adapted stories from actual news headlines to create gothic tales.
• His poem “The Raven” is his most highly acclaimed work
Edgar Allan Poe Bio
• it was said that Poe died of "congestion of the brain."
– Actual cause of death is up for debate (alcohol, drugs, rabies, epilepsy, carbon monoxide poisoning, etc.
Behind the Story
Poe had a real fear of being buried alive
After reading Poe’s work, a Russian inventor
created a device that allowed “deceased” to
ring a bell so that people would hear it
Think about this as we read “Cask of
Amontillado”
“The Cask of Amontillado” is a macabre tale of revenge!
*macabre: gruesome, horrifying
“…but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.”
Carnival
• Carnival is a secular (non-religious) holiday, but it evolved from the Christian observance known as Lent.
• Lent is a solemn forty-day period of fasting prior to Easter.
Carnival
• Traditionally, the fasting during Lent involves abstaining from eating meat.
• Modern interpretations of fasting may involve abstaining from anything one enjoys.
Carn + Val
FLESH (Meat) + FAREWELL
• Before participating in Lent, people celebrated one final time through carnival.
• People ate, drank, and socialized—sometimes this resulted in extreme behaviors and many people let down their guard.
Setting of “Cask. . .”
• “The Cask of Amontillado” is set during the “supreme madness” of Carnival.
• In such an atmosphere, it is easy to see how a crime could go unnoticed.
Nitre is a potassium nitrate
salt formerly known as saltpeter. Saltpeter is composed of the names “Sal” or salt, and “Petrae” or rock. Literally, salt of the rock.
“…but observe the white webwork which gleams from the these cavern walls.”
Nitre encrusted on an ancient jar
an ancient vault or catacomb
A Flagon is a vase or
decanter used to store
wine or liquor
A Trowel is a hand
tool used to lay bricks
and build walls
MASONS
Two definitions:
A member of the
fraternity of
Freemasons, a worldwide
fraternal organization
OR
One whose occupation is
to build with stone or
brick; also, one who
prepares stone for
building purposes.
Symbol for the Freemasons
THE FAMILY
ARMS
“A huge foot d’or, in a
field azure; the foot
crushes a serpent
rampant whose fangs
are imbedded in the
heal.”
FAMILY MOTTO
“Nemo me impune lacessit” Translation: “No one provokes me with
impunity” or “No one attacks me and gets away with it.”
In “The Cask of Amontillado”…
The narrator plans for his revenge to take place in the catacombs beneath his estate.
What are catacombs?
Paris Catacombs
• It lies far beneath the city
• In it, there are the bones of 5 to 6 million people.
• Starting from the late 18th century, lacking in space to put corpses, bodies of people who could not afford proper burials were moved from the overflowing cemeteries and dumped there.
Paris Catacombs
• The bones are piled around in heaps that line the walls. Some of the bones are in gigantic stacks.
• Some bones are fashioned into macabreconfigurations: A cross made from femurs
Why Catacombs?
• overcrowding
• disease
• overflowing cemeteries
• Proper burial became impossible.
• Stench/decay brought disease
Catacombs & the Wealthy
• It was not unusual for wealthy to have catacombs under their estates
• They could place the remains of their own family members here
The narrator of “The Cask of Amontillado” carries out his
revenge within the catacombs beneath his
palazzo.
Visiting the Catacombs
• It is possible for one to take a tour of the catacombs today.
• First, you walk down a long tunnel. . .
• And then you see. . .
Questions for the Reader. . .
• Do you think anyone celebrating outside will be able to hear anything occurring in Montressor’s catacombs?
• Would you ever dare go to someone’s personal catacombs?
As we read we will be analyzing…
Setting: the time and place Mood: atmosphere that the author createsTone: attitude an author takes towards the subjectPoint of View: 1st person, 2nd, person, 3rd
personIrony: what we expect to happy vs what really happens (situational, verbal, dramatic)Imagery: when an author paints a picture with words (5 senses)Plot: the chain of events in a story
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