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What are the similarities between "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Cask of Amontillado"?
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Both "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Cask of Amontillado" feature unreliable narrators, creating ambiguity about the truth of their accounts. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator's descent into madness makes her perspective questionable, while Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado" recounts events unreliably, possibly distorting the truth. Additionally, both stories build suspense: "The Yellow Wallpaper" through the narrator's confinement and obsession, and "The Cask of Amontillado" through the anticipation of Montresor's revenge.
In terms of unreliable narrators, the two stories are similar. In "The Cask of Amontillado," the narrator, Montresor, seems to be confessing to the murder of Fortunato, possibly on his death bed, but the reader is never really sure what is real and what has been fabricated by Montresor over the 50 years since the crime happened.
In "The Yellow Wallpaper ," the narrator is also unreliable. We get snippets of her story from a journal she has been keeping that chronicles her descent into madness at her confinement in an upstairs bedroom at a house she and her husband are renting for a few months. Throughout her narration, the reader becomes aware of several things that the narrator is not aware of, like her descent into madness. Since she is losing her grip on reality, we too much question her take on the events in the story like...
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one might question Montresor's interpretation of the events in "The Cask of Amontillado."
What are the similarities between "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Cask of Amontillado"?
Your question is confusing. Do you mean "What are the differences and similarities . . ."? Or do you mean "What are the similarities for the different stories"? I'll go with the latter.
One of the similarities between them is that of the unreliable narrator. For the wife in "The Yellow Wallpaper," since she is slowly descending into madness, we are not sure what she is telling us is even true. Plus, we are able to realize things about her plight that she doesn't, such as how she is slowly becoming obsessed with the wallpaper and descending into madness. In "The Cask of Amontillado" the narrator, Montresor, is also unreliable. Since he is recounting the tale many years after it has happened, we are not sure what we can believe and what he has fabricated.
Another similarity is the element of suspense. Both stories build up suspense. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" we are kept prisoner along with the narrator. Will she escape? Is the house haunted? Who is the woman trying to creep out from behind the wallpaper? In "The Cask of Amontillado" we are kept in suspense about the punishment Montresor has in store for Fortunato. What could he have done to Montresor to offend him so? Will he escape? Will the narrator change his mind and forgive him? Will he get away with it?