Obviously mortality and compulsion are two of the themes of the story, but whether or not the reader thinks the narrator is mad helps highlight the other themes of the story. In the introduction of the story, the narrator says, "True! -- nervous -- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" (Poe)
Bleilel writes that Poe was orphaned by his parents when he was three years old and raised in the home of John Allan. Bleilel also states that Poe's "early life was conditioned by his quarrels with Allan, and instead of being heir to one of the wealthiest men in America, he eventually found himself a penniless, half-trained intellectual with no means of livelihood" (Bleilel 697)
As a result of their troubling relationship, Poe was sent to the boarding school Manor House in Newington. Wolf Mankowitz writes that being away from his family was bothersome and Poe wrote about the "refreshing chilliness" (Mankowitz 27) he experienced while away
No one he loved was able to escape the grip of death regardless of his or her efforts. Nothing can stop is as demonstrated with Prospero's "strong and lofty wall" (Poe The Masque of the Red Death 614)
" As a symbolic presentation of the current modern theories of the formation and destiny of the universe. (Grantz)
Part 3: Sources and Influences William Gilmore Simms' "A Picture of the Sea" (1828) published in the Southern Literary Gazette I (December 1828) is often cited as the major source of inspiration for Poe's writing of "MS." (Hammond)
He also believed that the theme of the story (or poem) is always subordinate to the deliberate construction of an intense mood that the author creates in the reader's mind, such as melancholy, suspense, or horror. (Moore)
He was to lament the loss of his parents by remarking, "The want of parental affection has been the heaviest of my trials." (Poe "Letter to Judge Beverly Tucker
¶ … women in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," "Annabel Lee," and "The Fall of the House of Usher." Poe's tragic personal past with women in his life, notably the loss of both his wife and mother to tragic illness (Benton), is clearly reflected within all three of Poe's masterful works
He begins his tale by speaking directly to the reader. He pulls the reader in by saying that "You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat" (Poe, 191)
One may understand the above interpretation and concur with the fact that emphasizing the text's puns adds to the tale's overall effect. Therefore, one may consider the signified wine to be a part of a comprehensive conceit, which underscores the link between Montresor's manipulation of his victim and the process of preparation and refining of amontillado (Lewis)
While no tangible proof exists of Fortunato perpetrating any of the above two crimes, Montresor hints that his Freemason enemy is to blame for his lost respect, social standing, happiness, and love, through the following words: "You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was." He contemptuously and mockingly twists justice, apparently for God's love (Platizky)
" To Montresor, it was imperative that his victim, Fortunato, be aware of what is taking place. The killer would revel in his nemesis perishing slowly, while "the thought of his rejected opportunities of escape will sting him with unbearable regret, and as he sobers with terror, the final blow will come from the realization that his craving for the wine has led him to his doom" (Womack)
"If the ocean's currents were to suddenly stop flowing, there would be deserts in the tropics and thick ice sheets over Canada, Siberia, and Northern Europe." (Woodward, 53) Chapter three, "Run on the Banks," provides a more intricate account of particular regions affected and the domino effect that one species' disappearance would have on the others
"At every step we took inland the conviction forced itself upon us that we were in a country differing essentially from any hitherto visited by civilized men." (Poe 116) This idea contributed to differentiating between Pym's previous experiences and his presence on the island -- everything seems new to the protagonist, to the point where he appears to think of himself as completely foreign to the land