I need a comparison of "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Premature Burial"

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2001

Answers

The ultimate horror described in the Premature Burial becomes the ultimate revenge in the fiction of the Cask of Amontillado. The narrator keeps his distance from contemplating too much what his enemy is going through, taking cold pleasure in cleverly leading on his prey to be forever hidden in an anonymous grave. In the first, there is a lot of detail concerning the non-fiction experience of the state, ending with lugubrious dream imagery like Dicken's Ghost of Christmas past. In the Cask it is up to the imagination of the reader as the murderer goes about his business and his victime goes deeper and deeper into the no exit trap. The Amontillado claustrophobia is a singular function of the tale rather than a lot of inner analysis of the victim as it is in several ways in the semii-fictional Premature Burial.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001