On Anticipating Moments
Re-reading Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”
“For the love of God, Montresor!”
Every. Single. Time. Every time I read Fortunato’s last words I get chills. Not only does it mark the first time in Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” that Fortunato actually acknowledges Montresor by name, it also marks the moment when Fortunato realizes that Montresor does, in fact, intend to leave him to die within the catacombs. But why am I telling you about it when you could read it quickly and then come back to talk this over with me? I’ll be right here.
Good, isn’t it? I’m hoping you’ve just experienced the very thing I talked about. So why does this story, and this line in particular, still affect me like this even after I’ve read it more than a dozen times?
Consider the effect: terror brought on by a slowly dawning realization of what’s happening. Montresor tells us the story from the beginning. We know the outcome. And yet, we still feel Fortunato’s terror. This line, this moment, is all in service to creating this emotion.
You probably associate Poe with only short stories and poetry — that’s good. He primarily wrote in those forms for an explicit reason. Poe believed that short forms were the best medium to convey emotion, which he outlined in his essay The Philosophy of Composition. When we feel the chilling effect of Fortunato’s last words, we experience the terror that Poe wished to convey. We can experience the desired effect because we can read it all in one sitting. While I know Montresor’s end game, the build up to this moment of recognition of Fortunato’s fate overwhelms me with sympathetic terror when he cries out.
I find myself thinking about moments in my life when I knew what an outcome would be and was still floored with emotion, both the good and the bad. These have been shared moments, and these have been private ones. Such things make me wonder:
- Is the real value of such things found in the actual moment itself?
- When that visceral, sympathetic feeling hits, does that reinforce our connection to others?
- Just how valuable is recognizing that moment for what it is before it flees into the realm of memory? And what can we do to better appreciate and learn from such moments?
Anticipation is powerful, but without focus we can lose sight of the actual outcome. We spend so much time planning for the future that we are constantly looking for the next thing. With a short story, there is an end, an opportunity, to sit with the results and enjoy the payoff.
What about you? Has anything given you pause to sit and reflect on a specific emotion?
—Wesley
