英美文学方向论文《一桶阿蒙蒂拉酒》中的哥特主义.doc

THE GOTHICISM OF “THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO”
《一桶阿蒙蒂拉酒》中的哥特主义

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Submitted as Partial Requirement
for the Degree of B.A. in English

June 15, 2014

Graduate Paper:Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………i
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………ii
Outline………………………………………………………………………….………iii
Body…………………………………………………………………………………….1
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………12

Graduate Paper:Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
There is no denying that it is a tremendous challenge for me, an undergraduate majoring in English, to do research and write a research paper in English and English related academic areas. However, thanks to numerous people’s tireless efforts, this paper has eventually come to fruition.
My first acknowledgements should go to all the professors and teachers of Foreign Language School, who have ever taught me throughout the four years’ undergraduate life, for without their careful and responsible teaching, I would not have acquired the knowledge needed for this academic task.
My heart-felt gratitude also goes to my tutor, Mr. Chen Caiyi, who has taught me, in detail, how to make the research paper preparation and compilation. His preciseness and passion in teaching and research impressed me a lot, especially in the area of translation. Owing to his insightful guidance and comment on my paper as well as patient revising, the completion of this paper is made possible.
I am particularly indebted to Mr. Chen Bo who has given me a lot of guidance, assistance and concern. He has imparted to me so much valuable knowledge that will benefit me a whole lifetime.
No less gratitude should be given to my parents for their four years’ constant overall support, without which I would fail in realizing my university dream.
Finally, I give my sincere thinks to my dear friends and fellow students, who have accompanied me throughout the four years at the university, sharing sadness and happiness with me and teaching me a lot of things. Our friendship is always a treasure and a driving force to me.

Graduate Paper:Abstract

Abstract
Edgar Allan Poe is a writer who establishes a new school in the American history of literature. He firstly and consciously takes the short story as an independent literature style, advances his own composing theory of short stories and applies it to his composition of Gothic stories. “The Cask of Amontillado” is a classic example of Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic stories. Although this story is very short but it has tight structure and deep indication which integrate Allan Poe’s excellent artistic writing skills. Through the process of shaping gothic characters and scenes by typical gothic elements, the dark side of human nature are explored.

Key words: Allan Poe; Gothic Story; Gothicism; Terror; Darkness

摘要
埃德加·爱伦·坡是美国文学史上创立过全新流派的一位作家。他是有意识的将短篇故事作为独立流派对待的第一人，发展了他自己的短篇故事创作理论并运用到了他哥特故事的创作中。《一桶阿蒙蒂拉酒》是埃德加·爱伦·坡哥特故事中的经典例子。虽然这个故事很短，但结构紧凑，深刻并完整的体现了爱伦·坡高超的写作技巧。在利用典型的哥特元素塑造哥特角色和场景的过程中，爱伦·坡对人性中的黑暗面也进行了探索。

关键词：爱伦·坡，哥特故事，哥特主义，恐怖，黑暗

Graduate Paper:Outline
Outline
Title: The Gothicism of “The Cask of Amontillado”

Thesis statement: Through the study of “The Cask of Amontillado” which was a classic gothic novel that embodied the composition theory of Adger Allan Poe, this paper will analyze the function of gothic elements and discuss the possible reasons of Allan Poe’ s fondness of gothicism.
(Key words: Adger Allan Poe; Gothic Story; Gothicism; Terror; Darkness )

Outline:
I. Introduction

II. Analysis of gothic elements
A.The Theme of Revenge
B. An Old Castle with an Underground Catacomb
C. Murder
D. Atmosphere

III. The Reasons of Adger Allan Poe’ s Fondness of Gothicism
A. Influenced by Europe Gothic Literature tradition
B. Having his own composing theory.
C. Wanting to expose the darkness of human nature.

IV. Conclusion

Graduate Paper:Body

The Gothicism of “The Cask of Amontillado”

Ⅰ.Introduction
A. Gothic Literature
Gothic novel was born in England from around late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The word Gothic had come to means wild,barbarous and crude. This newborn genre began with Horace Walpole’s novel The Castle of Otranto, which told us a very thrilling story in a mysterious medieval castle. The subtitle of this very first gothic novel was “ A Gothic Story”. Therefore the subsequent novels with similar elements to The Castle of Otranto were collectively called Gothic Novel. As a matter of fact, Gothic Novel has its broad and narrow sense. In the narrow sense, Gothic Novel referred only to the eighteenth century’s England gothic novels. At that time, there were many remarkable works but two of them stood out above the rest, Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and Matthew Lewis’ The Monk. While in the broad sense, it refers to novels containing those unique gothic elements[Wikipedia,2014]. Generally, Gothic Literature gives the readers impressions of mystery, darkness and dread which is filled with contents of violence, death, murder, revenge and so on. The setting of Gothic Literature is always very eerie. The story usually takes place in a dark and secret place and the surrounding environment is often dread and scary producing a feeling of terror in the readers through the suspensive atmosphere depicted deliberately by the author. And the unfortunate end is an indispensable element too. The eternal theme of Gothic Literature is death to which Allan Poe preferred very much.

B.Edgar Allan Poe
“Edgar Allan Poe held a special status in the development of American literature in the nineteenth century. His short stories, as well as poems and literature commentaries were an important part of American literature in that period[Liu,2011:137].” There were about seventy short stories of Allan Poe, most of which depicted the terror, death, crazy impulse, nightmares and so on. Those remarkable and thrilling stories, such as “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Black Cat”, “The Masque of the Red Death”, “The Premature Burial”, “The Pit And The Pendulum”, became the legendary works in the history of Gothic Literature. As for his more than sixty pomes, there is a sure-to-be-talked-about masterpiece, The Raven, which tells a talking raven’s mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man’s slow fall into madness. Gothic elements also naturally melted into the whole work. As soon as it has published, the poem made Poe widely popular in his lifetime which rarely happened to other works of Poe, and it remains one of the most famous pomes ever written. Compared with other writers of the same times, Allan Poe stood out in many aspects. One of the main aspects was that he had his own systematic composing theory which was always presented in his criticism and works such as The Poetic Principle and reflected in his own works. Poe disliked didacticism and allegory, although he believed that meaning in literature should be an undercurrent just beneath the surface. Works with obvious meanings, he wrote, cease to be art. He believed that works of quality should be brief and focus on a specific single effect. To that end, he believed that the writer should carefully calculate every sentiment and idea[Wikipedia,2014].

C. The story
It depicts an meticulous revenge. At the beginning of the story, Montresor had a grudge against Fortunato for his insult and he promised himself to retaliate. One day during the carnival season, Fortunato was drunk badly, Montresor waited for this opportunity for a long time and he said to Fortunato that he bought a barrel of white wine from Mongolia of Spanish, Amontillado, but he could not tell whether it was the real Amontillado. When Fortunato heard of him, he insisted that he must taste it to help Montresor distinguish between the real one and the false. Montresor presented he did not understand what Fortunato meant and said he would invite a friend to differentiate it for him tempting Fortunato who prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine going to that old family’s inherited tomb. Montresor already installed the instruments of murder in the room, he fettered Fortunato firmly to the two iron staples in the surface of the wall and then he stepped out of the niche. Montresor walled up the recess, mocked the final struggle of Fortunato at the same time and left Fortunato in it rotten forever. However, Montresor retaliated Fortunato ruthlessly and successfully and at the end of the story, we finally find out surprisingly, the story is a reminiscence of what happened fifty years ago, and still knew to no one except the murderer.
As a famous Poe’s work “The Cask of Amontillado”, the gothic features as well as his composing theory were embodied perfectly in this story. This paper will mainly discuss the gothic features of “The Cask of Amontillado” and secondarily talk about the reasons for Poe’s fondness of gothic.

Ⅱ.Analysis of Gothic Elements
A.The Theme of Revenge
Allan Poe always pursues the most effective way of narration which is short length and rapidity. Like other Poe’s works, he focuses on only one specific effect. To achieve anxiety and terror effectively, there exist only two roles in this story, Montresor the murder and Fortunato the victim. “The only two people both have the flaw in the personality, only Montresor’s flaw is in the hideaway while Fortunato’s flaw is presented in the public and the intention to portray this kind of difference lies in the strengthened terrific effect that it should have when the climax arrives at the end of the story[Tao,2011: 11].” At the beginning, the only conflict of the story is quickly presented to the readers. Montresor has a grudge against Fortunato and he is longing for revenge. Here one gothic element already appears, the theme of revenge. “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 I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged[Allan Poe,1991:65].” From the very start, the idea of revenge spreads the chilling feeling of suspense making the readers curious about the subsequent plot and tensed for the unknown. Montresor explains his anger thinking Fortunato is nothing but arrogant hurting his feelings thousands of times. Even though the exact process of Fortunato insulting Montresor was not depicted in the story, the darkness of Montresor was clearly revealed to the readers because generally, normal people would not kill a person who insulted him as a revenge. Just in the beginning part, the madness and darkness of the protagonist were vividly presented in front of the readers. Montresor hates Fortunato with all his heart but he is so hypocritical that shows nothing to Fortunato. “It must be understood, that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my goodwill. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face[Allan Poe,1991:65].” Montresor conceals all his hatred from Fortunato keeping being Fortunato’s friend in order to carry out his plan of revenge someday. “You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged[Allan Poe,1991:65].” In these four lines, we can clearly see his deep hatred and resolution through the phrase “at length”. He is determined to revenge. What is more, he wants his revenge to be perfect without any consequences. “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 him felt as such to him who has done the wrong[Allan Poe,1991:65].” Led by this principle, Montresor has to make an elaborate plan for his revenge and actually the plan has already come into being. This strong hatred, although it is unilateral and Fortunato still thought that Montresor is his friend, makes the readers curious about what will he does to execute his revenge plan. This is the reason that Allan Poe starts the story so briefly and efficiently. A perfect gothic protagonist comes into being. A hypocritical man with twisted inner thoughts plans to kill the person he hates. The dark side of human being is ultimately increased. And one day during the carnival season, this revenge successfully starts.

B.An Old Castle with an Underground Catacomb
The story happens at one night during carnival season in Italy so every place in the world is filled with holiday atmosphere. It is at this time when Montresor meets Fortunato which seems occasional but actually not. Montresor’s revenge is planed dedicatedly including the time they meet and the place Fortunato dies. To carry out his plan safely, he deliberatively said he should not return until the morning to make sure that all servants slip out leaving the whole empty castle to him. Following author’s detailed description, an old building comes into our sight which is the oldest castle in that area. These kinds of structures are broadly used in gothic stories to increase the terror effect. Soon the two characters are walking towards the catacomb under this old castle where Montresor claims he stores the barrel of amontillado and actually buried the ancestors of Montresor family. On the way to the catacomb, Allan Poe took full advantages of his composing talent giving us an immersed sense of being in this terrifying environment. “The two characters pass down a long and winding staircase……We came at length to the foot of the descent, and stood together on the damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresors[Allan Poe,1991:67].” By these words, the bleakness and isolation are vividly emerged in front of our eyes. A tenebrous underpass with smelly damp atmosphere gives the readers a feeling of death. Step by step, they are walking further and further from the real world and Fortunato is walking closer and closer to his death. The climax is coming soon. “We had passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs; 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[Allan Poe,1991:67].” What a typical gothic room, scattered with bones of the dead which is so quiet that no sound outside can be heard here and vice versa. And the weak flambeaux seems like Fortunato’s hope of life, voguer and voguer. Here is the second gothic element, an old castle with a quiet underground catacomb. Do not you think it is a perfect place to experience a scary story, to murder someone? If the revenge does not relate you to death, here this secret catacomb must bring death, murder into your mind. Now it seems that they are in another world,