What Are The Similarities Between The Cask Of Amontillado And The Lottery

Elizabeth Gramlich

Ms. Schmitt

B Block

10 October, 2014

Analysis of Theme within The Cask of Amontillado and The Lottery

Unsatisfying death, in multiple forms, is the overall theme of The Cask of Amontillado and The Lottery. Theme, the underlying or main idea of a work of literature, connects the work The Cask of Amontillado, written by Edgar Allan Poe, and the work The Lottery, written by Shirley Jackson. The literary language devices that can be identified in both Poe’s and Jackson’s works, that uphold this theme, are symbolism and foreshadowing. The idea of unfair murder in The Lottery connects to the theme along with the idea of cheating murder in The Cask of Amontillado. Therefore, in the short stories, both Edgar Allan Poe and Shirley

In The Cask of Amontillado, Poe foreshadows Fortunato cheating his murder is through his name, which means fortunate in Italian. Throughout the story, Montresor says, “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity.” (Poe, page 1) Although Fortunato still dies in the short story, he dies, not at the hands of Montresor, but because of his cough. Therefore, Fortunato’s name foreshadows him cheating death. In The Lottery, Jackson uses the name Graves to foreshadow Tessie Hutchinson’s unfair death due to the lottery. Normally, graves are what you bury your dead in and, in the short story, Mr. Graves makes the slips of paper for the lottery drawing. Consequently, Mr. Graves’ name foreshadows the killing of an innocent through the lottery. Also, the name Delacroix is used to foreshadow the death of Tessie Hutchinson. In French, Delacroix means “of the cross.” In the story, when Tessie left Mrs. Delacroix, she said, “farewell and began to make her way through the crowd.” (Jackson, page 2) This foreshadows the crowd publicly killing her in the square unfairly. Due to these names that foreshadow, the main ideas of The Cask of Amontillado and The Lottery contribute to the theme of unsatisfying

In The Cask of Amontillado, Poe foreshadows Fortunato’s evasion of murder through his worsening condition. The short story begins with a unsteady, drunken Fortunato who is invited into Montresor’s catacombs to validate the authenticity of some Amontillado. As time passes through the story, his cough worsens to the point where he can’t talk, due to the Nitre, and he can barely stand. This foreshadows that before Montresor can murder Fortunato, Fortunato will evade by dieing from his condition. In The Lottery, Jackson foreshadows Tessie Hutchinson’s unfair death through the piles of stones. The beginning of The Lottery starts with, “a great pile of stones in one corner of the square,” that some boys had gathered, “and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.” (Jackson, page 1) When villagers started to gather in the town square, “They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner…” (Jackson, page 1) The actions of the villagers and the boys foreshadow that something dangerous is going to happen involving