SUMMARY:

The story is told in first person, so we don’t explicitly learn the narrator’s
name until near the end. Until then, we’ll call him “the narrator.” The narrator begins
by telling us that Fortunato has hurt him. Even worse, Fortunato has insulted him.
The narrator must get revenge. He meets Fortunato, who is all dressed up in jester
clothes for a carnival celebration − and is already very drunk. The narrator mentions
he’s found a barrel of a rare brandy called Amontillado. Fortunato expresses eager
interest in verifying the wine’s authenticity.

So he and the narrator go to the underground graveyard, or “catacomb,” of the

Montresor family. Apparently, that’s where the narrator keeps his wine. The
narrator leads Fortunato deeper and deeper into the catacomb, getting him drunker
and drunker along the way. Fortunato keeps coughing, and the narrator constantly
suggests that Fortunato is too sick to be down among the damp crypts, and should
go back. Fortunato just keeps talking about the Amontillado.

Eventually, Fortunato walks into a man-sized hole that’s part of the wall of a really
nasty crypt. The narrator chains Fortunato to the wall, then begins to close
Fortunato in the hole by filling in the opening with bricks. When he has one brick
left, he psychologically tortures Fortunato until he begs for mercy – and we finally
learn the narrator’s name: Fortunato calls him “Montresor.”

After Fortunato cries out Montresor’s name, he doesn’t have any more lines. But just
before Montresor puts in the last brick, Fortunato jingles his bells. Then Montresor
finishes the job and leaves him there to die. At the very end, Montresor tells us that
the whole affair happened fifty years ago, and nobody has found out.

THEME:
1. Betrayal drives the action in “The Cask of Amontillado." One character’s
betrayal sets off a hideous chain of retribution, enacted below ground in a
mass grave. Behind all this revenge and death, the story is about trust.
Without trust there can be no betrayal. The story has much to do with the
lengths human being will go to feel better when they feel betrayed – and the
tragedy that comes when those lengths hit murderous extremes.

2. Foolishness and folly can cost you your life. The story amplifies human
foolishness and folly to extremes so hideous and cruel they become vices. “The
Cask” only has two characters. By the end of the story, their combined
silliness culminates in tragedy and pain for them both. The tragedy is what
makes us think more profoundly about their foolish ways – in the hopes that
we can avoid ending up, even in some metaphorical way, like them.
ANALYSIS:
1. The Unreliable Narrator – Everything we know is filtered through the brain
of Montresor. Montresor is easily offended, jealous of Fortunato, and a little
strange. His propensity for being offended stems from his insecurity, an
insecurity that could lead him to invent a story about masterminding the
perfect murder/revenge. His jealousy of Fortunato leads him to slant
everything in the story to make Fortunato look stupid–his motley dress, his
drunkenness, his pomposity. The story itself indicates Montresor lacks sanity
and cannot be trusted. It’s his insanity, however, that leads the reader to
believe he is capable of such an act.

2. The Insult – Montresor vows revenge after Fortunato insults him. The
question that must be answered is what exactly, if anything, does Fortunato
do to cause such hatred in Montresor. The two exchange lively banter in the
catacombs, yet nothing is revealed in regards to the insult needed to be
avenged. Why doesn’t Poe include the insult? Because the insult’s irrelevant
and may have never occurred.

3. Full of Irony

A. Fortunato’s Outfit: Fortunato’s carnival garb is described as follows: “The

man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting party-striped dress and his head
was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.” In short, Fortunato is dressed
as a fool, a symbolic representation of what he is.
B. The Setting: The “supreme madness of carnival season” represents the
supreme madness of the narrator’s mind. It is the backdrop of carnival season
that lends the story its fantastic nature, a nature trumped only by the
madness of Montresor’s revenge.
C. Fortunato’s Name: Fortunato means fortunate in Italian, an ironic name for
someone about to be walled up in the catacombs.
Because I could not stop for Death
Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
Analysis:
The poem makes it very clear that the author, at some point in her life, viewed

death as something sweet and gentle. She welcomed death, perhaps because of the

idea that she would be only passing from this life to somewhere better. This is

portrayed in the first stanza of the poem when the author begins her ride with

Death, viewing him as a welcome and familiar friend. She is calm and reflective as

she passes by the school children and the grain field. She’s at peace watching the

beautiful sun set on her life. But when the warmth of the sun is gone and the damp

cold sets in, she looks at her new home, and it isn’t a mansion in the sky but merely

a swelling of the ground. Dickinson appears to have toyed with the idea of believing

in an afterlife in paradise, but in the end claimed that she was “one of the lingering

bad ones”, which suggests that she wanted to believe in life after death in paradise,

but could not. In the end, she believed the grave was her final resting place.

Theme:
Tone:

A. Lighthearted and Accepting – although death usual a sad event, Dickinson makes
it seem like a good thing because the speaker does not fear it.

B. Solemn- death is a serious subject but the speaker understands now that it is
just a part of life.

C. Shock- death came for the speaker in the middle of her busy life, when she’s not
prepared.
SUMMARY:
Machiavelli composed The Prince as a practical guide for ruling (though some
scholars argue that the book was intended as a satire and essentially a guide on
how not to rule). This goal is evident from the very beginning, the dedication of the
book to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the ruler of Florence. The Prince is not particularly
theoretical or abstract; its prose is simple and its logic straightforward. These
traits underscore Machiavelli’s desire to provide practical, easily understandable
advice.
The first two chapters describe the book’s scope. The Prince is concerned
with autocratic regimes, not with republican regimes. The first chapter defines the
various types of principalities and princes; in doing so, it constructs an outline for
the rest of the book. Chapter III comprehensively describes how to maintain
composite principalities—that is, principalities that are newly created or annexed
from another power, so that the prince is not familiar to the people he rules. Chapter
III also introduces the book’s main concerns—power politics, warcraft, and popular
goodwill—in an encapsulated form.
Chapters IV through XIV constitute the heart of the book. Machiavelli offers
practical advice on a variety of matters, including the advantages and disadvantages
that attend various routes to power, how to acquire and hold new states, how to deal
with internal insurrection, how to make alliances, and how to maintain a strong
military. Implicit in these chapters are Machiavelli’s views regarding free will, human
nature, and ethics, but these ideas do not manifest themselves explicitly as topics
of discussion until later.
Chapters XV to XXIII focus on the qualities of the prince himself. Broadly
speaking, this discussion is guided by Machiavelli’s underlying view that lofty ideals
translate into bad government. This premise is especially true with respect to
personal virtue. Certain virtues may be admired for their own sake, but for a prince
to act in accordance with virtue is often detrimental to the state. Similarly, certain
vices may be frowned upon, but vicious actions are sometimes indispensable to the
good of the state. Machiavelli combines this line of reasoning with another: the
theme that obtaining the goodwill of the populace is the best way to maintain power.
Thus, the appearance of virtue may be more important than true virtue, which may
be seen as a liability.
 The final sections of The Prince link the book to a specific historical
context: Italy’s disunity. Machiavelli sets down his account and explanation of the
failure of past Italian rulers and concludes with an impassioned plea to the future
rulers of the nation. Machiavelli asserts the belief that only Lorenzo de’ Medici, to
whom the book is dedicated, can restore Italy’s honor and pride.

ANALYSIS:
The book has influenced many people in history. Many philosophers credit

Machiavelli with leading the way in political science. They say this because he was

the first person to take a rational approach at analyzing government and politics.

Many of Machiavelli’s critics would say that he is too harsh in his ideas, and that he

even seems immoral. Others say, Machiavelli is only being honest with what he has

observed consistently in history to be true. The effect of his writing are still found

today too. People still need virtue in order to be a good ruler or manager. Success is

still to those who can make quick and intelligent choices. The government is still

supported most by it amount of power. However, countries are held accountable

today, and few would agree that the end justifies the means as Machiavelli wrote.

Overall, Machiavelli’s work has lasted through the years, and it has proven to be a

classic piece of literature by standing the test of time.

THEME:

Goodwill & Hatred

To remain in power, a prince must avoid the hatred of his people. It is not
necessary for him to be loved; in fact, it is often better for him to be feared.
Being hated, however, can cause a prince’s downfall. This assertion might seem
incompatible with Machiavelli’s statements on the utility of cruelty, but Machiavelli
advocates the use of cruelty only insofar as it does not compromise the long-term
goodwill of the people. The people’s goodwill is always the best defense against
both domestic insurrection and foreign aggression.
SUMMARY:
The speaker, walking through a forest whose leaves have turned yellow in
autumn, comes to a fork in the road. The speaker, regretting that he or she is unable
to travel by both roads (since he or she is, after all, just one person), stands at the
fork in the road for a long time and tries to see where one of the paths leads.
However, the speaker can't see very far because the forest is dense and the road
is not straight.

The speaker takes the other path, judging it to be just as good a choice as
the first, and supposing that it may even be the better option of the two, since it is
grassy and looks less worn than the other path. Though, now that the speaker has
actually walked on the second road, he or she thinks that in reality the two roads
must have been more or less equally worn-in.

Reinforcing this statement, the speaker recalls that both roads were covered
in leaves, which had not yet been turned black by foot traffic. The speaker exclaims
that he or she is in fact just saving the first road, and will travel it at a later date,
but then immediately contradicts him or herself with the acknowledgement that, in
life, one road tends to lead onward to another, so it's therefore unlikely that he or
she will ever actually get a chance to return to that first road.

The speaker imagines him or herself in the distant future, recounting, with a
sigh, the story of making the choice of which road to take. Speaking as though
looking back on his or her life from the future, the speaker states that he or she
was faced with a choice between two roads and chose to take the road that was less
traveled, and the consequences of that decision have made all the difference in his
or her life.

THEME:
The main theme of the poem, "The Road Not Taken," is that human beings are
confronted with and defined by the choices they make. The speaker is confronted
with this fork in the road and must make a choice as to which road to take. The
speaker can only choose one path, and must abide by that choice.

ANALYSIS:
The narrator decided to seize the day and express himself as an individual by
choosing the road that was “less traveled by.” As a result of this decision, the
narrator claims, his life was fundamentally different that it would have been had he
chosen the more well-traveled path. Every reader can empathize with the narrator’s
decision: having to choose between two paths without having any knowledge of where
each road will lead. Moreover, the narrator’s decision to choose the “less traveled”
path demonstrates his courage. Rather than taking the safe path that others have
traveled, the narrator prefers to make his own way in the world.
SUMMARY:
In this three-part epic poem, Dante Alighieri takes his readers on a pilgrimage
to Heaven via journeys first through Hell and Purgatory. It is a spiritual journey
expounding the evils of sin through the first-person narration of the aptly named
main character, Dante the Pilgrim. The title, The Divine Comedy, is not an implication
that the poem is humorous in nature. Rather, the poem is a “comedy” in that it is of
the classical style that existed in partnership with tragedy. Traditional tragedies
had plotlines that began with an optimistic, or positive, event but ended in sadness,
death, or a downtrodden existence. Comedy, considered a base genre, flowed in the
opposite direction with tragedy, or at least unhappiness, reaching a happy or
optimistic culmination.

Pilgrim’s journey through the realms of the dead lasts from the eve of Good
Friday to the Wednesday following Easter in the year 1300. The Roman poet Virgil
is Pilgrim’s guide through Hell and Purgatory. Beatrice, who represents Dante’s ideal
woman, leads passage through Heaven. Given its religious significance, it is not
surprising that The Divine Comedy is structured as a trinity. The three
aforementioned sections in literary terms are known as canticas and total 14,233
lines. Each cantica is made up of thirty-three cantos, once again giving significance
to the number “three.” The poem has an introduction, which is considered part of
the first cantica, thus giving the work a total of one hundred cantos.

The opening section of the poem, Inferno, finds Dante lost in sin, symbolically
depicted as a dark wood. He is attacked by a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf and
cannot find a way out to safety, or in the religious context of the poem, salvation.
This situation is represented by a mountain obscuring the sun. He is ultimately
rescued by Virgil who guides them through the underworld. Every sin in Inferno has
a punishment that symbolically, even ironically, levels justice. As an example, sinful
seers or fortune-tellers are destined to walk with their heads attached facing
backward so as to be unable to do what they did in life: see what is yet to come. The
three animals that attack Dante symbolize the sins of being self-indulgent, violent,
and malicious. Hell is structured as nine circles into which sinners are classified.
Those suffering from incontinence or lack of restraint fall into circles one through
five. Pride or violence make up circles six and seven. Fraud and malice are the sins
connected to circles eight and nine. Each of the circles signifies deeper and deeper
evil ending in the earth’s core, the realm of Satan. The punishments for the sins of
each circle vary.

After surviving the journey through Hell, Virgil leads Dante to Purgatory, a
mountain on the far side of the world that was formed upon Hell’s creation. The
mountain has seven terraces representing the seven deadly sins. In the realm of
Purgatory, sins are classified more based on one’s motives than on one’s actions.
Theologically, there is a Christian basis although Dante does not rely exclusively on
the Bible. Love is a significant theme in The Divine Comedy. Love becomes sinful when
driven by pride, envy, or wrath. It is also sinful when it is sloth or weak, or too strong
via lust, gluttony, or greed. An additional region of Purgatory is the Ante-Purgatory
home of those excommunicated from the church and those who died who may have
been repentant but had not received rites. Purgatory is an allegory for the Christian
life. Souls are escorted there by angels with the hope that they might attain divine
grace. The structure of Purgatory from a scientific perspective shows a medieval
knowledge of the Earth as a sphere.

On the final leg of his pilgrimage, Beatrice escorts Dante through Paradiso,
that is, Heaven. She guides him through the nine celestial spheres of Heaven. While
Hell and Purgatory were based on classifications of sin, Heaven is structured around
the four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues. The initial seven spheres
of Heaven are concerned with the cardinal virtues of prudence, fortitude, justice,
and temperance and are where those embodying said virtues find themselves. The
eighth sphere contains those who achieved faith, hope, and love, which are
considered the theological virtues and represent the achievement of human
perfection. The ninth circle of Heaven is the place of angels, the beings never
touched by sin. A final level, which in a sense brings the total to ten, is the Empyrean
wherein lies the essence of God. Paradiso is of a more spiritual nature than the other
two regions of The Divine Comedy. Dante interacts with several saints there
including Thomas Aquinas, and Saints Peter and John. At the end of the text, Dante
has an epiphany, which although he cannot fully explain, unravels for him the mystery
of Christ, and he feels himself as one with God.
THEMES:

Life as a Journey

The Divine Comedy presents life as a journey in which one man (representing
all human beings) must overcome obstacles to achieve the ultimate goal, eternal bliss
in the sight of God. Therefore—unlike epics such as The Odyssey, The Aeneid, and
Beowulf—The Divine Comedy focuses mainly on life as a spiritual journey. The
obstacles the traveler must overcome are temptation and sin.

Salvation Through Repentance

Even if a person sins, he is not lost. Sincere contrition and penitence will
restore the soul to eligibility for entrance into heaven.

Rehabilitation

Although confession of sins and penance will restore a human being to a state
of grace, after he dies must he must purge himself of the stains sin leaves on his
soul if he has not done so in his lifetime. This purgation in the afterlife takes place
in purgatory.

Love

When he was a child of nine, Dante met Beatrice Portinari and loved her from
that moment on. Although he married another woman and she married another man,
he continued to love her from afar and dedicated many poems to her. She died when
she was only twenty-four. In The Divine Comedy, she appears to him in Canto XXX
of Purgatory, wearing a white veil and crown. Out of love for him, she rebukes him
harshly until, in Canto XXXI, he confesses his guilt as a sinner. She then acts as his
guide, leading him into Paradise.
ANALYSIS
The Divine Comedy outlines Dante's political worldview. As a White Guelph,
Dante believed that an emperor should govern affairs of the state while the Pope's
power should be confined to religious affairs. During his lifetime, Dante witnessed
intense fighting between church leaders and various emperors who wished to govern
Christiandom. These struggles divided Italy, turning neighbors against each other,
and led to Dante's exile. So intertwined was Dante's life with current politics that
it can be said that the turmoil between church and state truly determined the course
of Dante's life. Thus, in The Divine Comedy, readers clearly recognize Dante's
political beliefs as the poet rails against his enemies, who he meets in Hell, and
glorifies his allies. It is clear that Dante intended to use his poems as a political
platform around which to rally support from friends and from which to sound a
warning to his foes especially corrupt religious leaders.
Finally, with The Divine Comedy Dante provides his readers with a spiritual map and
a moral compass. Frustrated and dismayed by his own sinful ways and the growing
corruption that he saw around him, Dante hoped that his visions of Heaven and Hell
would prompt readers to return to a righteous path just as Beatrice had hoped that
Dante's journey would deliver him from sin. To this end, Dante made the lessons of
the Bible accessible to his contemporaries by drawing a graphic yet clear picture of
the punishments awaiting them in Hell and the rewards found in Heaven. Through
the questions that Dante poses to his guides and the spirits that he meets, readers
find answers to many of life's most difficult moral and spiritual questions. Readers,
for example, learn how prayer helps to deliver sinners from Purgatory and, based on
their location relative to the highest sphere of Heaven, which sins God most
abhors. Readers also learn that they must not neglect their spiritual duties because
even baptized and repentant Christians may spend thousands of years in Purgatory
before ascending to Heaven. The Divine Comedy is "epic" because it not only tells
the story of a man's journey from Hell to Heaven, it also presents an entire world
order, and man's place in that order, according to one of the most brilliant and
important thinkers in history.