The Cask of Amontillado

The Cask of Amontillado

Author’s biography

Edgar Allan Poe

He was considered a poet, narrator and critic Estadounisense, who wrote terror, mystery, and romantic poetry. The image of Edgar Allan Poe as a morbid cultivator of the literature of terror has sometimes hindered the just appreciation of its literary transcendence.

Edgar was born in Boston, the United States in the year 1809. He was only two years old when he lost his parents. Then he had an adoptive father named John Allan, a wealthy Richmond businessman. Edgar had a traumatic relationship with his adoptive father. From 1815 to 1820 he lived with John Allan and his wife in the UK, where she began her education.

After returning to the United States, Edgar continued to study in private schools and attended the University of Virginia, but in 1827 his hobby of gambling and drinking caused him to expel him. He left shortly after the position of employee John had assigned him and traveled to Boston, where he published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems in 1827.

After several years of publishing poems and novels, he married and time after his wife's long illness turned his marriage into a bitter experience; When she died, her tendency to alcoholism and drug use worsened. Both addictions were, in all likelihood, the cause of his death, occurring in 1849: He was found unconscious on a street in Baltimore and led to a hospital, where he died a few days later, apparently a stroke.


Historical background
Edgar Allan Poe belongs to the Romanticism since doing an analysis you come to the conclusion that "for the poetry is inspired by the beauty and the love to the beauty is an activity of the soul." The romanticism you had different forms of literature like the theatre, the Prose (historical novel), and the poetry.

The Romanticism is a literary movement of idealistic character that emerged in Spain at the beginning of the nineteenth century as a reaction to political and social instabilities and to allow the artistic expression of liberal thinking. And for Edgar, the soul is the immortal part of man, who passes from the present life to another otherworldly.


Expectations/Predictions about the text
I think this reading selection will be a real story with characters that make it fun and enjoy it. So I am not sure but I do not think that is a sad story, because of the title name can be something unusual about a cask that is called Amontillado. Again I expect to learn more vocabulary and to know what is the main idea or the message of the story.

I would like to know after reading it if I can use it for my students, I want to check if will be understandable for them depends on the level that they have and if they are able to make a comprehension with the characters and the message that the author wanted to transmit in the reading selection.


Analysis or Connection between literary work and historical background

Edgar is considered one of the best storyteller of the history in literature, so the connection is based of his own life, maybe he was trying to express the part of his life since he lost his parents. As the history said, he belonged to the romanticism because in the past, this literary movement described emotions that arouse wild and melancholy aspects of nature.

Otherwise, this author represents an original way to write poems and stories that make enjoy to the reader. Again we can see the inspiration of Edgar in the writing because as we said before, he connected his real life to create stories about it.


Literary movement (that the author belongs or represents and what that movement is)

Edgar Poe represents the Romanticism as his literary movement because according to his historical background and because he developed his story with culture and art, he was specialist in write poems, there was an inspiration in him that allowed him to express all the feelings through the writing.

The genius and originality of Edgar Allan Poe find their best expression in the tales, according to their own critical appraisals, are the second literary form, because they allow a reading without interruptions, and therefore the unit of an effect that is impossible In the novel. Considered one of the most extraordinary storytellers of all time, Poe began the revitalization that the genre would experience in modern times.

Although today the term "romantic" is usually associated with love, otherwise in the 17th century it was used to describe the emotions that arouse wild and melancholy aspects of nature, as well as synonymous with something incredible and unlikely. In the literary and artistic field of that epoch, the adjective was an antonym of the classical style and Latin, like for example medieval and baroque literature.

Country: United States

Genre / Type: Short story

Did you confirm your predictions? Were they correct? Were they wrong? How? Why?

I had a wrong prediction, it was about the kind of the story, I thought that was going to be fun but was a kind of serious because the character was telling his experience with a friend, who had hurt him a lot and the main character was thinking in revenge.

I confirmed another expectation again that was to learn vocabulary, this author used a vocabulary that can be for beginner level because is not difficult to understand. Also, I will apply this reading selection for my students because I think that the message of this one is not doing bad things to others, to be respected even when we have good friends. However, this reading teaches us to try to forget and forgive people that we know that they are wrong and try let them know with wisdom, not with a revenge.

References

Biografías y Vidas. (2004). Biography of Edgar Allan Poe. 2017, de BYV Sitio web: https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/p/poe.htm

Biography.com Editors. (n/a). Biography of Edgar Allan Poe. August 2, 2017, de A&E Television Networks Sitio web: https://www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160