Theme of Emotional Distress and Loss of Clarity in The Cask of Amontillado and A Rose for Emily (Essay Sample)

Pain can make people do irrational things and even act a bit ludicrous. Pain can “impairs one's motivation or one's ability to exert self-control, and some postulate self-destructive intentions arising from the moods.” (Tice, 2001), which over time can create unhealthy habits and obsessing over things beyond our control.  Pain is just the tip of the iceberg; The trauma that consumes your mind afterwards is a different kind of distress. Some begin to feel the need to be in control of everything all the time, while others obsess over petty little altercations. There are 2 authors in the literary world that have really emphasized the theme of emotional distress and loss of clarity: Edgar Allan Poe and William Faulkner. Poe and Faulkner are some of the most important writers to ever exist. Both literary geniuses upbringings were challenging, and this is seen in many of their publications. Some of their most well-known work being “The Cask of Amontillado” by Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner; Both stories really centralize on the behavior of the main characters. For instance, in “A Rose for Emily”, Emily, the main character, struggles with abandonment issues, control issues and her inability to accept loss; this ultimately led to her isolation and the murder of her l ast lover Homer Barron. Emily was so bent out of shape over the possibility  that her lover may not propose to her and end up leaving her, that she killed him to control the outcome; he never would be able to leave. Emily also struggled with her late father’s rejection of all suiters, leaving her utterly consumed by the thought that she wasn’t good enough for anyone. On the other hand, the protagonist from “The Cask of Amontillado” Montresor obsesses over getting revenge on an enemy that insults his family name. Montressor ends up letting his obsession of avenging his family name that he makes an unethical choice and murders his foe in cold blood. And with every step closer in completing his revenge his lost more and more security within himself. Throughout their journey in the catacombs, Montresor subconsciously begins to experience the effects of guilt and shame over what he’s done. Poe and Faulkner both came up with protagonists that felt hurt over pain caused to them, but while Emily and Montresor both make a similar and unethical choice of committing a homicide, they have two very distinct reasons for it. The authors make those reasons clear by using word diction and describing the experiences that have led them to this heinous point.

We're all human. So, when we commit something heinous, our minds and bodies tend to have a reaction. One can even experience the feeling of guilt and remorse, while others who are in denial of their guilt tend to bear a more physical reaction. In the story “a Rose for Emily” The main character Emily, doesn't it seem to exhibit any signs of guilt for what she's done but in our other story “the cask of Amontillado” The protagonist Montresor falls victim to the human reaction experience by those feeling guilt. Montresor even expresses that he “’For a brief moment I hesitated — I trembled.’” (Poe, 1846). While Poe breaks down Montresor’s subconscious reaction to killing his enemy, Faulkner doesn't really focus on how Emily murdering her last lover affects her. Emily seems to be in denial but in a different way; Emily believes that she's done the right thing and even feels safe because she is now in control. Faulkner goes more into how Emily issues have caused others to view her. Yet Poe doesn't mention anything at all about anyone viewing Montresor with pity; Montresor is someone of power and popularity. On the other hand, Emily spends most of her life isolated and stagnant. She was the gossip of the town because of how she had gone off the deep end after being abandoned by her prior lover and it was known that “After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” (Faulkner, 1930). Faulkner exhibits how Emily refuses to evolve with the changing times of the South to show how she has become “motionless”; over time it is even said that the last time anyone saw her she was old, and Gray compared to when her father was around when she was so young and lively. 

There is only so many reasons someone can have for committing a homicide. The UK office of statistics states “over half…of all homicide cases resulted from a quarrel, a revenge attack…” (Elkin, 2020). In the short stories “A Rose for Emily”  and “A Cask of Amontillado”, main characters Emily and Montresor commit premeditated murder but their motives for doing so differ. Montresor spends his time obsessing over getting revenge of his frenemy, he wishes nothing but pain and suffering on him. Montresor kills his enemy purely for revenge. As the plot develops, the author makes sure that the reader notices that Montresor excessively talks about his revenge. It is very clear that Montresor doesn’t have a clear reason for doing this, only that he must do it.  In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, her last lover Homer’s murder was a bit different. Emily never felt in control and often felt powerless when it came to losing someone. Throughout the years, her father had rejected many suiters and forbid her from even speaking to them “He deliberately thwarts Emily’s attempts to find a husband in order to keep her under his control.” (Faulkner, 1930), but all Emily ever wanted was a husband. This behavior her from her father consequently caused Emily to become too familiar with the fear of losing someone. And when push came to shove Emily only saw one way to ensure that her lover would be with her forever: murder. Emily like Montresor was so sure she was doing the right thing and truly believed this was the only way to guarantee she wouldn’t be abandoned. Emily’s father, Mr. Grierson playing a big rule on how Emily spiraled out of control in the years after his death. It was also the impact of her father’s strictness that led her to believe that she wasn’t doing anything wrong. Emily even found comfort in her lover being dead next to her, the fact that she kept him in a room decorated as a bridal suite uncovers how much she had lost her mind. Nevertheless, both these characters committed premeditated murder but went about doing so in different ways, one went suffering and screaming to be saved, while the other passed peacefully.

There are two ways to meet the end in this life: painfully or peacefully. Unlike Montresor, Emily wanted the death of her lover to be quick and painless, this makes sense in the sense that she really did love him in her own twisted way. Faulkner states “’ I want arsenic’”, this displays what poison Emily asked for when going out to purchase it. Arsenic is “a naturally occurring, metalloid component of the Earth’s crust. Minuscule quantities of arsenic occur in all rock, air, water, and soil. A metalloid is a substance that is not a metal but shares many qualities with metals.” (Paddock, 2018) and if dangerous levels of arsenic are consumed, death is a possible outcome. The way that Emily was consumed by her past experiences, Montresor was consumed by revenge, which ultimately led to both making very irrational choices. In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” the reader can see how determined Montressor is to get revenge, “I promised myself that I would make him pay for this” (Poe, 1846). The way he kills his frenemy is a completely different from how Emily goes about killing Homer. Montressor leads his frenemy through the catacombs under his vacant home, while doing this he lures him far enough to have exploited his enemy’s weakness. Montressor chains him up and piles up an exit with rocks to guarantee that his enemy cannot escape. Consequently, both Emily and Montressor do heinous things but the way they go about them and why are two completely different stories. 

To truly understand why someone has done something you’ve had to have walked in their shoes. It’s very clear that both these characters have suffered many traumas and it has a huge effect on how they navigate through their lives. Emily and Montressor are so consumed by what has happened to them that they’ve lost clarity in what they’re doing. Both protagonists are extremely determined to complete what they feel is right that it was clear that there was no convincing them to refrain from committing murder. To keep them from committing such crimes, their lives need to have been completely different. It comes to a point where not just the main characters, but generally speaking “No matter how much insight and understanding we develop, the rational brain is basically impotent to talk the emotional brain out of its own reality.” (Van der Kolk Bessel, 2015). Emily and Montresor even share the personality trait of being self-centered and neither of them are punished for their crimes because they’ve both kept what they’ve done a secret. In the short stories “The Cask of Amontillado” and “A Rose for Emily”, the main characters are very desperate and obsessed with fulfilling their emotional needs and while they both have very different reasons and ways of going about it, both short stories ultimately end with cold-blooded murder.