Classify The Ministers Black Veil and The Cask of Amontillado in their respective literary movement (Romantic, Gothic, Naturalism, etc.) Do both stories fall under the same movement? Why or why not? Discuss the similarities and differences of The Ministers Black Veil and The Cask of Amontillado in regards to themes and ideology respective to their literary movement.

Answer:

The Minister’s Black Veil begins with the sub-heading “A Parable”.  A parable is a saying or story in which something is expressed in terms of something else and they usually have hidden meanings that may not be clear to the reader or listener at first.   The Ministers Black Veil is a parable in that the minister tries to convey an idea of secret sin by hiding his face behind a black veil. The parishioners are confused and do not know why the minister is wearing a black veil. At the end of the story the readers come to learn that the ministers intended that the parishioners should understand that men wear a symbolic black veil and everyone has a secret sin that is hidden from others that we are unwilling to admit. The veil is also a symbol of the masks of deceit and sin that separate all individuals from truly facing themselves, their loved ones, and the divine spirit through the ministers own words. The minister tries to teach the parishioners indirectly that people are not upfront as they seem as there is always something lurking in the background that we don’t know of. Edgars story the Cask of Amontillado also touches on the same theme on men’s evil nature as seen in the actions of Montresor burying his friend alive for reason that are unclear.

Both Hawthorne’s The Ministers Black Veil and Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado allude to events that are not written. Events such as what made the minister wear the veil or what insult drove Montressor to enact such revenge on Fortunato. However, we can infer from the characterization and the context that perhaps the minister in Hawthorne story had done something sinister or he was a mentally and emotionally unstable man. In the story there is an insinuated meaning that the reverend had committed a dark crime against the young woman whose funeral he conducted. Poe’s story also alludes that Fortunato must have done injustice to his friend and further insulted him for Montressor to be so fed up with him. Montressor must have been so angry or a deranged and twisted individual as to bury his so called friend alive with a smile on his face and with no regret.

The Ministers Black Veil and The Cask of Amontillado fall under the romantic literary movement as Hawthorne and Poe were dark romantics who wrote about the human condition and human nature .Hawthorne and Poe believed that humanity was an evil creature, continuously plagued with sin, guilt, and morbidity, For example Montressor’s action of revenge to a unaware friend through deceit in Poe’s story The Cask of Amontillado. Another example would be the minister’s attempts to hide his face to symbolize man’s unclean, guilty and sinful nature. Poe and Hawthorne saw the negative and evil side of the world that is filled with murder, abuse, guilt, sin and morbidity. Although Poe and Hawthorne belonged to the same movement there were some marked differences between them in that Hawthorne endeavored to portray the moral of the story clearly that is all men wear a symbolic black veil. But in Poe’s story the reader does not learn anything as the narrator gets away with murder. It is evident that Poe does not use his writings to present a lesson as there is no condemnation of revenge.

In summary we can conclude that the stories are similar in terms of ideology that men are evil and use of allusion as a style in writing and last but not least they fall under the same literary movement.

Place your order now…………