The Cask of Amontillado Group

Topic: How would you write an epilogue to Poe's story "The Cask of Amontillado"?

Rate topic:

1

soooooidk

To continue the story

2

The answer to this question depends on the assumptions you make about how, when, and why the story was narrated in the first place. We know that a very long time has passed since the events narrated:

Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. [Here and below, my emphasis.]

and we have no sign that the narrator is being investigated by authorities or giving his confession to a legally defined crime. Instead, he is speaking in confidence to someone he has long been acquainted with and whom he trusts:

You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat.

So why does this evidently very old man (he is already the head of a household at the beginning of the tale) feel it advisable to confess to a murder long buried in the past? One plausible scenario is that the events narrated have been preying on his mind more than he would like to admit, and he wishes to lighten his conscience a bit by confessing. We have some indication in the story that he is affected, but is too proud to admit it:

My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so. I hastened to make an end of my labour.

The excuse underlines the unease he felt, and feels.

If we assume that the narrator wishes to make a confession but is too proud to go all the way and admit that he had sinned, we might further imagine that his audience is a priest, someone he has known a very long time. The epilogue might plausibly see the priest begging him to confess his sin fully and so improve his chances in the next world, and the narrator refusing, since like Macbeth, another proud and haughty aristocrat, he values his reputation among fellow human beings far more than his chance of avoiding eternal damnation.

3

joe30pl

Well, I would, as mentioned above, take a few things in account. We know fifty years have passed and our narrator has clearly not suffered or been tried for his crimes. I disagree on the idea of him feeling guilt. If anything, his tone suggests more bragging than bereavement. Earlier in the story, yes, there is action to suggest he is feeling remorse over his actions, but he seems to get over that rather quickly.

We know at the end no one is tried for the crime, but that may be an avenue to explore. Perhaps he is confessing all of this to someone. Who would it be? What would their reaction? Or maybe go another direction. How would someone react to hearing of this crime? Remember the five Ws and the one H and you should be good.

Add a Post