The Paradox of Revenge in Edgar Allan Poes The Cask of Amontillado Ess

The Paradox of Revenge in Edgar Allan Poes The Cask of Amontillado?The Cask of Amontillado? raises a disbelief pertaining to the multiple character of the self (Davidson 202) Can harmony of ones self be restored once primal impulses have been acted upon? This question proposes the fantasy of crime without core (Stepp 60). Edgar Allan Poe uses first soulfulness point of view, vivid symbolism and situational irony to show that because of mans inner self, revenge is ultimately not possible. Edward Davidson suggests that Montresor, the main character of the story, has the power of woful downward from his mind or intellectual being and into his brute or physical self and then return again to his intellectual being with his impart self being unimpaired (202). However, Poe tells this story from Montresor?s point of view. The use of first person narration provides the reader with insight into Montresors inner struggles. First person narration is Poes method of insuring the reader unders tands that Montresor is not successful at this harmony. The thoughts and feelings of Montresor lead the reader to conclude that he is not successful at revenge. Montresor says in state his story, You, who so well know the nature of my soul, give not suppose, however that I gave utterance to a threat (153). By communicating in this way, the question arises of who Montresor is actually speaking to, and why he is telling this story fifty years later. One can only conclude that it is for one of two reasons he is either bragging or finally giving confession. As he tells the story, it becomes obvious that he has not yet filled his need to win, and now a half of a century later, is still struggling with his conscience. As Gregory Jay s... ...onscious self is obsessed with an evil, the conscious must overcome it or a paradox will result in which both selves parish. Works CitedBarbour, Brian. Poe and Tradition. Bloom 63-81.Bloom, Harold. Interpretations The Tales of Poe. New York Chelsea House, 1987.Davidson, Edward H. Poe A Critical Study. Cambridge Harvard UP, 1980.Frieden, Ken. Poes Narrative Monologues. Bloom 135-48.Gargano, James. The Question of Poes Narrators. Regan 164-71.Jay, Gregory. Poe Writing and the Unconscious. Bloom 83-110.Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. literature for Composition. Sylvan Barnet, et al, eds. 4th ed. New York HarperCollins, 1996. 153-57.Regan, Robert. Poe A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs Prentice-Hall, 1967.Stepp, Walter. The Ironic Double in Poes The Cask of Amontillado Bloom 55-62.