Compare and Contrast: Cask of Amontillado and Young Goodman Brown
After reading "The Cask of Amontillado" and "Young Goodman Brown," I have recognized the three components of the Romantic story. Gothicism, the Grotesque, and Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, are all key building blocks of the Romantic story.Consider the different way that each author entwines the Gothic fundamentals of literature into their story. In "The Cask of Amontillado," the narrator, Montresor waits until the carnival season, a time of "supreme madness," to seek revenge on Fortunato who insulted him. Hawthorne doesn't show us the wild life and times of the carnival season, but he does show us the wild side of the puritan life when we see the townspeople performing satanic rituals in the woods. The carnival and catacombs that Poe describes, are examples of the fantastic settings that are part of the Romantic story. "The nitre!" I said; "see, it increases. It hangs like moss upon the vaults. We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among the bones. (76)Hawthorne doesn't really have a fantastic setting; his is more of a mystery. Where is goodman Brown going? What will he find? And finally, at the end of the story, along with the narrator and goodman Brown we ask ourselves, "Had goodman Brown falle
When goodman Brown tells the old man, "My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him" (188). Even so, to the reader's dismay they find a revelation in the story, and they also find out that the townspeople including Faith (goodman Brown's wife), all lead dark, secret, hidden lives. Montresor has a desire to keep his good name, and he will stop at nothing to maintain his status, including kill Fortunato. Further into the story we run across this dark humor once again when Fortunato makes a toast saying, "I drink, to the buried that repose around us," and Montresor toasts saying, "And I to your long life" (77). They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. Montresor stays calm and collected while erecting the wall and listening to Fortunato as he is being buried alive. Secondly, the Romantic story often will have the character demonstrating characteristics of the Grotesque. The devil in turn replies to goodman Brown:Good, goodman Brown! I have been as well acquainted with your family. Though Brown successfully wards off the devil, the sin now resides in him. In the beginning of the story he claims that Fortunato has given him a thousand injuries that he endured patiently, but when Fortunato dared insult, he vowed revenge. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem. Montresor hides behind this friendly attitude just to lure Fortunato into the catacombs, so he can kill him. Freudian criticism states that the meaning of a literary work lies in the author's psyche, or their Id, Ego, and Superego. Montresor's state-of-mind can be looked at as an abnormality.
Common topics in this essay:
Grotesque Montresor's,
Cask Amontillado,
Brown's Montresor's,
Goodman Brown,
Montresor Fortunato,
Fortunato Hawthorne,
Interpretation Dreams,
Brown's Id,
goodman brown,
Fortunato Montresor,
Superego Id,
kill fortunato,
goodman brown's,
romantic story,
goodman brown fallen,
brown fallen,
fallen asleep,
forest dreamed,
asleep forest,
brown feels,
story townspeople,
goodman brown feels,
disgusted shameful real,
narrator goodman brown,
freud's interpretation dreams,
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Acceptance Essays
