•Edmond Dantès: Protagonist. Edmond’s unequivocal happiness is cut short when his enemies, who are blinded by their jealousy and self-bitterness, plot against him. Edmond’s gullibility and willingness to incoherently trust everyone around him precipitates his downfall. His destruction of character and desire for vengeance leads him to overstep moral boundaries. With the transformation of Edmond into the Count of Monte Cristo, he experiences a metaphorical death, the death of his virtuous self. Unjustifiably, the Count views himself as “divine,” vindicating his actions as simply ruling according to God’s will. The Count has many aliases-most notably Sinbad the Sailor, the Abbé Busoni, and Lord Wilmore-which he uses to manipulate his enemies and their relatives. Living up to his “divine” title, the Count does not forget to reward his few friends, such including Monsieur Morrel and his family. Throughout the story, we witness snippets of primitive Edmond when he is confronted with his
David Sedaris’ short story “Jesus Shaves” is a humorous telling of an important message. While he makes the subject seem light, the overall message shows how communication and cultural barriers can prevent us from growing together as a society. He also shows how we do not necessarily try to understand other cultures and often give up in the process. By giving up we allow for our differences to continually divide us which causes ignorance and bigotry. The conflict of this story is language and cultural barriers. The climax of the story occurs when the protagonist discovers that he is faced with a cultural barrier and is unable to accept it. In order to understand both the conflict and climax of this story, I will use textual evidence and detailed
Montresor has a strong violent vengefulness. When he vowed revenge, he tells the reader, “You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that gave utterance to a threat”. There are many ways to revenge on Fortunato but his word expresses that his desire to give him not only mental but also physical distress. From this world,
In the “Cask of Amontillado” Montressor is a very angry and vengeful man. He says that he was insulted by Fortunato, but fails to give a reason as to why or how. He begins to enact his revenge by luring Fortunato in with the rare wine and when his “friend” Fortunato is drunk, he t proceeds to bring him deeper and deeper underground, while telling him to turn around repeatedly. Once he reached a place where no one can hear them, Fortunato walked into what he thought was another corridor, but it would turn out to be his grave! For as soon as Fortunato hit the wall, Montressor chains him against it. Montressor then begins to build a wall, which seals off Fortunato and leaves him for dead. Fortunato screamed and tried to struggle his way out of
A narrator: defined as a person who guides or tells the story of events through one’s own experience. As far as we are told, the narrator tells the story precisely and can make the words of the page come to life. Yet, is it possible for the narrator to tell the story incorrectly through their own perspective? This well-written horror shows us anything is possible in the art of literature. From reading “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, readers learn that the narrator is unreliable and therefore cannot be trusted to tell the story completely accurately.
Montresor is the story 's protagonist, as well as its narrator, meaning that the story is told in the first person point of view. Because of this, the audience has no idea what is true or what Fortunato is thinking; only the information Montresor remembers and chooses to disclose. Clearly, Montresor is unbalanced, and has a complete lack of remorse for his actions. The audience witnesses this most notably toward the end of the story, when Montresor describes “A succession of loud and shrill screams... I replied to the yells of him who clamored. I reechoed – I aided – I surpassed them in volume and in strength.” (Poe 1112-1113) Not only does Montresor bury Fortunato alive, but he mimics his screams as he entombs, taking sheer delight in Fortunato 's terror. Montresor is also an unreliable narrator, which, as defined by our text, is “a fictional character... whose knowledge or judgment about events and other characters is so flawed or limited as to make him or her a misleading guide to the reader.” (Charters 1745) The audience cannot count on Montresor to give an accurate depiction of the events in the story. What are the “thousand injuries”? (Poe 1108) What is the “insult” that finally pushed Montresor over the edge? (Poe 1108) Did the events in the story really
The terrifying story, “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe is down right bizarre. I believe the narrator is definitely a little strange whether you may disagree or not. Edgar Allen Poe had a very interesting way of applying the narrator to act like he is not crazy, but at the same time basically baby feeding the readers that he really is crazy. There are several ways the narrator himself is actually proving he is insane.
Harry Mulisch’s The Assault is a self-proclaimed “story of an incident” (3) wherein “the rest [of the events are] a postscript” (55). The incident in question is the murder of Anton Steenwijk’s parents, and the postscript refers to the future, where Anton uncovers details relating to the incident. Despite Mulisch’s definitive distinction between events, however, the incident itself is convoluted and its details shift over the span of the work. Through the development of major and supporting characters, Mulisch brings forth a diverse range of perspectives and reconstructs the history of the incident, thereby exploring the motif of moral ambiguity within The Assault.
In the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” a family of six meets their demise on the side of the road in Georgia after a gang of convicts lead by The Misfit brutally murders each member of the family. The story starts off in an upbeat tone and sets up a seemingly happy plot about a family going on vacation to Florida. However, the grandmother does not listen to her son about taking her cat on the trip and her disobedience ultimately leads to all of their deaths. The author changes the tone of the story at the end when the family gets into a wreck and faces a gruesome death by a crazed armed killer on the loose (O’Connor#). The grotesque psychopathic nature of the characters in Flannery O’Connor’s, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” ironically shows how a good man does not truly exist through the revelation and proclamation of what characteristics a good man possess.
In Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor has an evil plan to get revenge on his “friend,” Fortunato. Montresor's plan involves drinking the wine, Amontillado. Fortunato loves wine, and he will do anything for it, or with it. Wine plays a huge role in Montresor's plan. Montresor gets Fortunato to really think that they are “friends.” Montresor told Fortunato that he is a “rich, respected, admired, beloved” (86) man. He does not actually think that. When he says he “must not only punish” (83) Fortunato, but he must “punish [him] with impunity” (83), which he does. The first step in Montresor's plan is to get Fortunato to go in the catacombs. He says to Fortunato, “Come, we will go back, your health is precious” (86). Montresor is doing reverse psychology.
Dom Casmurro is narrated in the first person narrative by the self-proclaimed protagonist Bento, nicknamed Dom Casmurro for his stubborn nature. The story is told solely from his perspective and therefore automatically creates a biased view of the events that come to pass in the novel. The flawed narrator (Bento) writes the story from his point of view completely muting out the opinions and speech that do not directly support his case in order to rally sympathy and build trust between himself and the reader. Despite the fact that all we have to believe is Bento’s thoughts and what he writes down, because of Machado’s writing technique we are able to see what Bento tries to do, which is to play the victim in the story. Driven by jealousy and
Canto XXXIII was very sad and tragic. Some of the themes were revenge, betrayal, and food. Ruggieri, an archbishop was betrayed by Count Ugolino. Ugolino betrayed his country and was forced out. To get revenge, Ruggieri persuaded the Pisans to go against Ugolino and lead him to a trap. Him, his sons and grandsons were taken away from their house and were locked up in a tower. They were left there and starved to death. This was where the theme of food showed. It was devastating where his children told him to eat them to end their sufferings. The depiction of characters is cannibalism and guilt. Ugolino was biting his hands. His children thought he was hungry and they told him to eat them since after all he is the father and the person who
The narrator represents himself as a young man who lack of experience. Although he thinks that he is educated, the narrator has been through alot and now accepts the ideas by others. He is unable to answer his own answers to issues and lacking a sense of his identity. The
One of Edgar Allan Poe’s most known attributes is his use of fear in many of his stories. He used words and images to instill the fright into his readers. He strung together scenarios that happen to his characters that encapsulates real fears that a reader could have. Poe would use fear in his stories in multiple ways. A story could relate around a certain fear. The way Poe sets up his story with the tension could create a fearful atmosphere. He did not just focus on portraying a narrator with a certain fear, he would use language that would make the reader feel fear. He packed in images of darkness and horror in order to create these atmospheres that presented fear in many different ways.
In Zadie Smith's short story, Two Men Arrive in a Village, two men come into a village and wreak havoc on it and its people. Few have pointless courage, but it's just that, pointless courage. Once the leader comes back to her damaged village, she shows little interest in finding the culprit. In Smith's story, she uses fear and dark modern language to represent leadership. In doing so, she maintains the image of a fearful, powerful leader who destroys things in terror and violence.Smith uses dark language and undertones in a universal them about fear and leadership.