ENC 1102 Length: Roughly 1200 to 1400 words. (5/6 pages)Please follow MLA format. This is of utmost importance. Follow each and every rule listed. This is not optional. Read everything in this assignment and be sure you have followed the directions and tips listed before you submit your paper.Due Dates: Do NOT blow these due dates! You have been given plenty of time.Attach formatted first paragraph to Peer Review discussion by Monday, March 25.Annotated Bibliography: Due by Sunday, April 14. Research Group Discussion to precede. Final Copy: Due Wednesday, April 24.Your research paper will be five or six pages (1200 to 1400 words) written about one of the options below. Your research paper will require you to use Modern Language Association (MLA) documentation format to incorporate research and source materials (criticism, analysis, quotes form the text) into your writing to support your ideas. You will use parenthetical references throughout the paper to indicate citations which will be listed on a works cited page. Failure to include both in-text citations AND a corresponding Works Cited page will result in a zero for the assignment and force your failure for the course.You must use at least five sources which offer commentary on your topic, plus quotes from the text. You will have a minimum of six sources listed in your Works Cited page, as the text itself will also be included.All of your sources must come from serious, reputable, academic sources; the best way to ensure this is to utilize sources that you find in the databases on the Valencia library website and the literary criticism books in the library itself. (See Library Research Handout) You do NOT want to cite general online sources like Wikipedia, Book Rags, Enotes, Gradesaver, Suite 101, blogs and the like.Your paper must show appropriate integration of quotes (see quote integration handouts).Please choose one of the following on which to base your paper:As usual, if you have an idea other than the prompts that interests you, please email your thoughts to me so I can approve them. Your idea must be related to the stories we have read for Weeks 8, 9, or 11.Please choose one of the following on which to base your paper:Discuss isolation as it applies to one of the works for Weeks 8, 9, or 11. How does isolation affect the outcome of the work you have chosen? How does isolation help to drive the plot? How does isolation affect the characters? How does isolation affect the mindset of the characters? Be careful not to let this turn into a book report. The topic here is isolation, just discussed in the context of this work. Focus on one of the questions above, not all of them. Authors use symbolism to strengthen their ideas. Discuss the use of symbolism in one of the short stories we have read for Weeks 8, 9, or 11. Choose one or two skillfully related symbols.Discuss one of the works from Weeks 8, 9, or 11 as a work of (Southern) Gothic literature. Is this a work of Gothic literature? Why? What makes it a work of Gothic literature? What specific element(singular) of Gothic literature are you focusing on in this story? No lists! Be specific in your thesis. Pick one element and focus on that element; for instance, setting or the presence of supernatural powers. Do not write a paper that lists all the Gothic elements in a particular story; you will get a zero. Find that one element of Gothic literature that you like and apply it to one story.What is the motive for murder in “The Cask of Amontillado”? Be specific. Do not say it was the “insult.” Tell me what the “insult” is specifically. Did Fortunato steal from Montresor? Did he cut him in the lunch line? Did he use his toothbrush? What did he do? Remember, whatever Fortunato did do happened before the story begins. Play a little game of CSI.General Guidelines for MLA format:Double-space the text of your paper, and use a legible font (e.g. Times New Roman). Whatever font you choose, MLA recommends that the regular and italics type styles contrast enough that they are recognizable one from another. The font size should be 12 pt.Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks.Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides.Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the Tab key as opposed to pushing the Space Bar five times.Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin.Use italics throughout your essay for the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary, providing emphasis.Formatting the First Page of Your Paper:Do not make a title page for your paper.In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor’s name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.Double space again and center the title. Do not bold, underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks; write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play; Human Weariness in “After Apple Picking”Double space between the title and the first line of the text.Create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with a page number; number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor or other readers may ask that you omit last name/page number header on your first page. Always follow instructor guidelines.)Tips:Do not use contractions (don’t, can’t, shouldn’t)Stay away from the pronoun I as much as possible. Discuss the characters, not yourself, your feelings or your thoughts. Your thoughts and feelings should shine through in your discussion of the topic.Do not make me part of your discussion by using the pronoun you. Avoid sentences like “You can see how much Sammy wants out.” Do not assume anything about the reader. Use the words the reader.Do not make unsubstantiated assumptions about anything. Do not start your paper out by saying something like “Every horror story has some form of isolation.”Everything you write in your paper should in some way be substantiating your thesis. Everything.Mention title and author in intro.PreviousNext
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THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO
by Edgar Allan Poe
(1846)
THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured
upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not
suppose, however, that gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this
was a point definitely, settled –but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved
precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong
is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when
the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to
doubt my good will. I continued, as was my in to smile in his face, and he did not
perceive that my to smile now was at the thought of his immolation.
He had a weak point –this Fortunato –although in other regards he was a man to be
respected and even feared. He prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine. Few
Italians have the true virtuoso spirit. For the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to
suit the time and opportunity, to practise imposture upon the British and Austrian
millionaires. In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack,
but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this respect I did not differ from him
materially; –I was skilful in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever
I could.
It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season,
that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been
drinking much. The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress,
and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells. I was so pleased to see him
that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand.
I said to him –“My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are
looking to-day. But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have
my doubts.”
“How?” said he. “Amontillado, A pipe? Impossible! And in the middle of the
carnival!”
“I have my doubts,” I replied; “and I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado
price without consulting you in the matter. You were not to be found, and I was
fearful of losing a bargain.”
“Amontillado!”
“I have my doubts.”
“Amontillado!”
“And I must satisfy them.”
“Amontillado!”
“As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchresi. If any one has a critical turn it is
he. He will tell me –”
“Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry.”
“And yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your own.
“Come, let us go.”
“Whither?”
“To your vaults.”
“My friend, no; I will not impose upon your good nature. I perceive you have an
engagement. Luchresi–”
“I have no engagement; –come.”
“My friend, no. It is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive
you are afflicted. The vaults are insufferably damp. They are encrusted with nitre.”
“Let us go, nevertheless. The cold is merely nothing. Amontillado! You have been
imposed upon. And as for Luchresi, he cannot distinguish Sherry from Amontillado.”
Thus speaking, Fortunato possessed himself of my arm; and putting on a mask of
black silk and drawing a roquelaire closely about my person, I suffered him to hurry
me to my palazzo.
There were no attendants at home; they had absconded to make merry in honour of
the time. I had told them that I should not return until the morning, and had given
them explicit orders not to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well
knew, to insure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was
turned.
I took from their sconces two flambeaux, and giving one to Fortunato, bowed him
through several suites of rooms to the archway that led into the vaults. I passed down
a long and winding staircase, requesting him to be cautious as he followed. We came
at length to the foot of the descent, and stood together upon the damp ground of the
catacombs of the Montresors.
The gait of my friend was unsteady, and the bells upon his cap jingled as he strode.
“The pipe,” he said.
“It is farther on,” said I; “but observe the white web-work which gleams from these
cavern walls.”
He turned towards me, and looked into my eves with two filmy orbs that distilled the
rheum of intoxication.
“Nitre?” he asked, at length.
“Nitre,” I replied. “How long have you had that cough?”
“Ugh! ugh! ugh! –ugh! ugh! ugh! –ugh! ugh! ugh! –ugh! ugh! ugh! –ugh! ugh!
ugh!”
My poor friend found it impossible to reply for many minutes.
“It is nothing,” he said, at last.
“Come,” I said, with decision, “we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich,
respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be
missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be
responsible. Besides, there is Luchresi –”
“Enough,” he said; “the cough’s a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a
cough.”
“True –true,” I replied; “and, indeed, I had no intention of alarming you unnecessarily
–but you should use all proper caution. A draught of this Medoc will defend us from
the damps.
Here I knocked off the neck of a bottle which I drew from a long row of its fellows
that lay upon the mould.
“Drink,” I said, presenting him the wine.
He raised it to his lips with a leer. He paused and nodded to me familiarly, while his
bells jingled.
“I drink,” he said, “to the buried that repose around us.”
“And I to your long life.”
He again took my arm, and we proceeded.
“These vaults,” he said, “are extensive.”
“The Montresors,” I replied, “were a great and numerous family.”
“I forget your arms.”
“A huge human foot d’or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose
fangs are imbedded in the heel.”
“And the motto?”
“Nemo me impune lacessit.”
“Good!” he said.
The wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled. My own fancy grew warm with
the Medoc. We had passed through long walls of piled skeletons, with casks and
puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs. I paused again,
and this time I made bold to seize Fortunato by an arm above the elbow.
“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. Come, we will go back
ere it is too late. Your cough –”
“It is nothing,” he said; “let us go on. But first, another draught of the Medoc.”
I broke and reached him a flagon of De Grave. He emptied it at a breath. His eyes
flashed with a fierce light. He laughed and threw the bottle upwards with a
gesticulation I did not understand.
I looked at him in surprise. He repeated the movement –a grotesque one.
“You do not comprehend?” he said.
“Not I,” I replied.
“Then you are not of the brotherhood.”
“How?”
“You are not of the masons.”
“Yes, yes,” I said; “yes, yes.”
“You? Impossible! A mason?”
“A mason,” I replied.
“A sign,” he said, “a sign.”
“It is this,” I answered, producing from beneath the folds of my roquelaire a trowel.
“You jest,” he exclaimed, recoiling a few paces. “But let us proceed to the
Amontillado.”
“Be it so,” I said, replacing the tool beneath the cloak and again offering him my arm.
He leaned upon it heavily. We continued our route in search of the Amontillado. We
passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again,
arrived at a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to
glow than flame.
At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had
been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion of the great
catacombs of Paris. Three sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this
manner. From the fourth side the bones had been thrown down, and lay
promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a mound of some size. Within the
wall thus exposed by the displacing of the bones, we perceived a still interior crypt or
recess, in depth about four feet, in width three, in height six or seven. It seemed to
have been constructed for no especial use within itself, but formed merely the interval
between two of the colossal supports of the roof of the catacombs, and was backed by
one of their circumscribing walls of solid granite.
It was in vain that Fortunato, uplifting his dull torch, endeavoured to pry into the
depth of the recess. Its termination the feeble light did not enable us to see.
“Proceed,” I said; “herein is the Amontillado. As for Luchresi –”
“He is an ignoramus,” interrupted my friend, as he stepped unsteadily forward, while I
followed immediately at his heels. In niche, and finding an instant he had reached the
extremity of the niche, and finding his progress arrested by the rock, stood stupidly
bewildered. A moment more and I had fettered him to the granite. In its surface were
two iron staples, distant from each other about two feet, horizontally. From one of
these depended a short chain, from the other a padlock. Throwing the links about his
waist, it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it. He was too much astounded to
resist. Withdrawing the key I stepped back from the recess.
“Pass your hand,” I said, “over the wall; you cannot help feeling the nitre. Indeed, it is
very damp. Once more let me implore you to return. No? Then I must positively leave
you. But I must first render you all the little attentions in my power.”
“The Amontillado!” ejaculated my friend, not yet recovered from his astonishment.
“True,” I replied; “the Amontillado.”
As I said these words I busied myself among the pile of bones of which I have before
spoken. Throwing them aside, I soon uncovered a quantity of building stone and
mortar. With these materials and with the aid of my trowel, I began vigorously to wall
up the entrance of the niche.
I had scarcely laid the first tier of the masonry when I discovered that the intoxication
of Fortunato had in a great measure worn off. The earliest indication I had of this was
a low moaning cry from the depth of the recess. It was not the cry of a drunken man.
There was then a long and obstinate silence. I laid the second tier, and the third, and
the fourth; and then I heard the furious vibrations of the chain. The noise lasted for
several minutes, during which, that I might hearken to it with the more satisfaction, I
ceased my labours and sat down upon the bones. When at last the clanking subsided, I
resumed the trowel, and finished without interruption the fifth, the sixth, and the
seventh tier. The wall was now nearly upon a level with my breast. I again paused,
and holding the flambeaux over the mason-work, threw a few feeble rays upon the
figure within.
A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the
chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back. For a brief moment I hesitated, I
trembled. Unsheathing my rapier, I began to grope with it about the recess; but the
thought of an instant reassured me. I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the
catacombs, and felt satisfied. I reapproached the wall; I replied to the yells of him who
clamoured. I re-echoed, I aided, I surpassed them in volume and in strength. I did this,
and the clamourer grew still.
It was now midnight, and my task was drawing to a close. I had completed the eighth,
the ninth and the tenth tier. I had finished a portion of the last and the eleventh; there
remained but a single stone to be fitted and plastered in. I struggled with its weight; I
placed it partially in its destined position. But now there came from out the niche a
low laugh that erected the hairs upon my head. It was succeeded by a sad voice, which
I had difficulty in recognizing as that of the noble Fortunato. The voice said-“Ha! ha! ha! –he! he! he! –a very good joke, indeed –an excellent jest. We will have
many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo –he! he! he! –over our wine –he! he! he!”
“The Amontillado!” I said.
“He! he! he! –he! he! he! –yes, the Amontillado. But is it not getting late? Will not
they be awaiting us at the palazzo, the Lady Fortunato and the rest? Let us be gone.”
“Yes,” I said, “let us be gone.”
“For the love of God, Montresor!”
“Yes,” I said, “for the love of God!”
But to these words I hearkened in vain for a reply. I grew impatient. I called aloud -“Fortunato!”
No answer. I called again -“Fortunato!”
No answer still. I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within.
There came forth in return only a jingling of the bells. My heart grew sick; it was the
dampness of the catacombs that made it so. I hastened to make an end of my labour. I
forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I reerected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed
them. In pace requiescat!
…
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