"A Rose for Emily" and "The Cask of Amontillado"

1. Narration and Point of View for
“The Cask of Amontillado”
and “A Rose for Emily”
BY KAYLA FROEMMING, BROOKLYNN FLIPPO, FAITH CHILDERS, AND
JANINE NEWMAN

2. Narration of
"The Cask of
Amontillado"
STORY BY EDGAR ALLEN POE
PRESENTATION BY KAYLA FROEMMING

3. The Narrator
 Montresor-A broken man, which is evident in his story telling
 He tells the reader in the beginning of the story "At length I will be
revenged"
 The vengeance that Montresor is speaking of is that towards Fortunato,
and whatever wrong doing he feels Fortunato has done

4. First-Person Singular Narrator
 The reader is able to decipher the type of narration that Poe is using
because of how the narrator references himself, such as "I"
 "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could"
 This references that Montresor uses for himself is found throughout
the entire story

5. An Unreliable Narrator
 Because of how "The Cask of Amontillado" is told from only the
perspective of Montresor, it only allows the reader to see his
viewings of what's occurring in the story
 It is also safe to say that Montresor's current mental state in the story
can also have cause for speculation of his narration abilities
 His need for vengeance drives his questionable mental state
 Notice the wording used of "need", because his feelings towards Fortunato,
and later killing of, are what is fueling all of the narration for this story

6. Style and Tone
 The style of "The Cask of Amontillado" is dark, and in so does offer
foreshadowing in to what happens in the end of the story to
Fortunato
 The story itself is set in the dark of the night, not in these words, but this is
the feel that the reader receives
 Also, when Fortunato and Montresor reach Montresor's house and all of
the servants have been sent away
 Then the dungeon like feel of where Montresor takes Fortunato to burry
him alive, which is also part of the tone of Poe's story, dark and full of
suspense

8. First-Person Singular Point of
View
0 The point of view of this story is told from the
character Montresor
0 Montresor refers to himself as “I” throughout the story
0 “I continued, as my wont…”

9. Montresor’s Point of View on the
Story
0 Montresor was a very disturbed man. Full of
vengeance.
0 Because the story was in his point of view the reader
gets to see his thoughts. That clues us into the fact
that he uses reverse psychology to lure Fortunato into
the catacombs.

10. Narration of “A
Rose for Emily”
WRITTEN BY WILLIAM FAULKNER

11. The Narrator
 The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” is an unidentified townsperson.
 This is seem right from the start with the phrase “our whole town went to
her funeral”
 The narrator has an first-person/ omniscient point-of-view.
 This can be seen in how the narrator uses the words our, they, their and
he/she when describing the events that have taken place.

12. Cont.
 The narrator also appears to someone of higher standing within the
town, as the narrator knows of everything that has happened and is
present at the end when they entered Mrs. Emily’s room.
 The narrator being a unidentified member of the town and
presenting somewhat of an “outside” point of view made the
strange order of events work in a way that coming from someone
“closer” to Mrs. Emily wouldn’t.

13. Prepared By: Janine Newman
“A Rose for
Emily”
Point of View

14. First-Person Point of View
 The story is being told from the point of view of one of the towns people
 The first sentence indicates this, as the towns person says, “when Miss Emily
died, our whole town went to her funeral”
 The towns person uses “we” often, which indicates first-person point-of view

15. Point of View
 After Emily’s father passes, she becomes friendly with Homer Barron, a match far
below her standards for he was a Northern laborer
 Emily buys arsenic therefore neighbors think she’s going to poison herself
 Marriage is spoken of Emily and Homer
 Homer leaves town, returns 3 days later
 Homer is seen walking into Emily’s house at night, which is the last time anyone
has seen of either of them for a long time

16. Point of View Cont…
 Neighbors complain of strong smell coming from Emily’s house
 City council is unable to contact Emily so they send men to her house under the
cover of darkness to sprinkle lime around the house
 Emily becomes recluse, never seen outside the house, rarely accepts people in,
black servant does all her shopping
 Emily passes away, the townsfolk enter her house, kick in her bedroom door to
see what’s been hidden for so long
 Homer Barrons decomposed corpse lies on the bed, on the pillow beside him is a
head indentation, and strand of Emily’s grey hair

18. Works Cited
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Norton Introduction to Literature.
Shorter 11th ed. Ed. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton,
2012. 516-522. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” The Norton Introduction to
Literature. Shorter 11th ed. Ed. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York:
Norton, 2012. 165-170