Response: The Cask of Amontillado

After seeing Edgar Allen Poe's name on this story, I knew that I should expect it to be disturbing in some form or another. My expectations were definitely met as I proceeded to read the story.

I must admit that the story was confusing at points because of the language. I don't know much about wine and the way that the story was written made it a little bit difficult to understand exactly what was going on. However, once I did figure out what was going on and what the story was about, I realized that this story has a lot to say about relationships and the human condition.

The relationship between the two characters in the story seems to be characteristic of many relationships today. They appear to be friends from an outsider's perspective, but on the inside there are feelings of bitterness, resentment and animosity. Readers are aware of this because of the way that the narrator begins the story. He tells us that he has suffered thousands of injuries from Fortunato and that he bore them as best he could, but had vowed revenge. Through this we see that he is trying to keep up the front of friendship but has no true feelings of friendship for this man. I think that this pattern is common among adults today. We may not like someone or have been hurt by them, but for the sake of keeping up appearances we will mask those feelings and be friendly to the person. While this may be an effective means of saving face for a while, we see in this story that it will not last and that true emotions will eventually be revealed. In this case, they built up and caused the narrator to seek an awful revenge.

The narrator takes advantage of Fortunato's state of inebriation and tricks him into believing that he is looking out for his best interest, when in reality, his intentions are the opposite. He also calls Fortunato "friend" many times throughout the story, further convincing Fortunato that he and the narrator are on good terms. After all of the convincing that the narrator does, Forunato is trusting of the narrator and walks blindly into his trap. Many times, this happens to people who are not cautious in their actions or aware of the ways in which they impact those around them. They do not realize that others might be upset with them and are in turn too trusting of those that they have hurt.

Once Montresor has completed the task of walling in Fortunato, he lets out a loud scream. I saw this as a sort of release of his emotions and realization that he could not ever fully receive closure and peace about the situation with his friend. This is especially due to the manner in which he chose to handle the dispute with Fortuato. He ran from conflict and was deceitful, and now he has to live with the consequences. While his choice to murder Fortunato may have brought some relief, I assume that his guilt will counteract that. I think that this story shows the depths of depravity of the human condition and the importance of honesty in dealing with conflict, as opposed to running from them.

Response: The Story of an Hour

In my opinion, this story was heartbreaking and maddening. I felt for the woman when she lost her husband and was frustrated by her extremely short grieving process. I don't believe that she could have actually completed the process in an hour, because it takes people months, and even years, to grieve the loss of a spouse. I think that the author minimized this by giving the woman an attitude that looks beyond this present moment. "She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome."Making plans based on this sort of attitude is a dangerous thing to do, and Josephine learns this lesson quickly, but not soon enough at the same time. She receives immense joy from the thought of having freedom to live "for herself" and when her husband returns and her new world view is suddenly flipped upside down, she dies. She goes through a huge swing of emotion and experiences both the highest high and lowest low within an hour. To me, this just seems unhealthy, and is proved to be so in the story.
It is also clear through this story that the author, Kate Chopin, is of the feminist mindset. This was evident to me through the joy that Josephine found in the loss of her husband. The author chooses to make the situation more about Josephine's gain of freedom as opposed to her loss of a loved one. She also shows Josephine questioning her love for her husband. This idea an extremely feminist idea, as well as the idea of women not needing men, or even being worse off with a husband than without one. I don't typically take a feminist stance on issues, so I did not particularly agree with Chopin.
Overall, the story seemed to be a good avenue for thought on topics such as marriage, love and relational independence.