The Cask of Amontillado Essay -- Literary Analysis, Allan Poes

In Edgar Allan Poes The Cask of Amontillado, the main character, Montresor, leads his enemy, Fortunato, into his catacombs, and there buries him alive by bricking him up in a niche in the wall Poe gives no actual reason for this except to say that Montresor has been insulted in some way. In his Science Fiction civilise Usher II, Ray Bradbury adopts many of Poes works in creating his storyincluding pieces from TCoA. What separates Bradburys work from other authors who borrow works and re-imagine them (Gregory Maguires Wicked, Geraldine Brookss March, and Peter Carreys Jack Maggs, for instance), is that Usher II, in its imaginative way, is trying to be one with its predecessor. Bradbury seeks to retain Poes love of the double and the secretive (Gothic mentalities where the ratifier is meant to be a bit uncertain about what theyre reading and whats going on) while adding, most notably regarding TCoA, the things Poe never had much wish well for a beginning, an end, and reasonthus maki ng Usher II not only an homage to Poes work, but a companion piece whose crush heart lies within the original work.Poe, according to Professor Epstein of the Queens College English Department, wrote for the climax, got you there, and then go away examples of this can be found in The Black range and The Tell-Tale Heart, where Poe cuts out right before the cops are about to slap the chains on the narrators, and, as will be illustrated below, in TCoA. In The Philosophy of Composition, Poe writes, regarding the bodily structure of his stories, It is only with the denouement the final revelation showing the outcome, or untying, of the plot constantly in view that we can give a plot its indispensable glory of consequence, or causation, by ma... ...has taken Poes TCoA whole, just as it is, and made it his own by tinkering at the edges, giving it a beginning, and, because the main character has knowable reasons for doing what hes doing, a proper conclusion that doesnt leave the reade r feeling as if theyve been pushed to the top of a mountain and then left there to get down themselves. In Usher II, Bradbury takes Poes masked figures and lifts them for the reader (if not for the characters, who need to die because they arent familiar with Poe). Bradbury hasnt stolen Poes work, nor has he altered its effect he has, instead, added his own sly creativity to a master storytellers work by expounding upon what was already there. I think that even Poe, who so valued originality, would have been amused by Bradburys retelling of his work. (Either that, or lead him down into some dark and tatty catacombs.)