Kate Chopin is a personality which deserves attention. Being an interesting person, Kate Chopin has written many stories and her life may be considered as boring and usual except for the particular moments which make her biography deserve attention. Of course, the lives of famous people are always interesting, however, the biography of Kate Chopin attracts attention due to a number of reasons.
Being a person who wrote about the discrimination of women, their hard life in the patriarchy society and other similar aspects, it seems that Kate Chopin considered the society of her time unfair. Struggling for women rights and trying to present a woman as equal to men, it seems strange for me Kate Chopin described severe headaches once a month (each 28 days).
Such confession seems strange and unusual, therefore it is possible to conclude that Kate Chopin agreed on the role of a woman as the society believed was correct (Chopin, Toth, Seyersted, and Bonnell 10). One more fact from the biography of this woman seems peculiar and deserves attention is the fact that after the death of her husband, Dr. Chopin, Kate did not follow the tradition of six months of mourning.
This fact was rather confusing for the family members of her husband’s family (Toth 66). Considering the way how these people spent time together, one may say they fell in love with each and such behavior could not be understood in a proper way. Kate respected her husband, they spent much time together and her behavior seemed inappropriate.
Therefore, these are two facts from Kate Chopin’s biography which caught my attention. They seem strange and at the same time interesting. Such aspects in the biography of the author of Awakening make her life particular.
Poe uses both humor and horror to create the setting in The Cask of the Amontillado and this aspect is easily noticed. Reading the description of the catacombs and the way how Montresor makes Fortunato come there, doubtful opinion is created.
On the one hand, the setting is horrible paying attention to the final scene. On the other hand, it is impossible to miss the fun in the way how Montresor makes a fool of Fortunato making him go to catacombs.
Montresor says that he wants a piece of advice from an expert in wine, a friend advice, stating that “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I [Montresor] had borne as I best could” (Poe). It is rather strange that Fortunato did not notice the fact of flattery.
The description of catacombs is also funny and horrible at one and the same time. The mentioning of human remains is horrible while the very fact of the inability of Fortunato to catch the atmosphere. The very process of immune seems rather funny. Being caught Fortunato repeats the title of the wine for several times, “The Amontillado!” as if he did not notice what happened to him.
But the reader understands what is happening and this awareness makes the whole scene more terrific and comic at one and the same time. However, the reader understands what Montresor is doing and it makes him/her terrified.
Therefore, it may be concluded that the surrounding atmosphere is funny while the background view is terrific. The author managed to make the readers smile while reading such a story, cruel and disgusting.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate, Toth, Emily, Seyersted, Per and Cheyenne Bonnell. Kate Chopin’s Private Papers. New Jersey: Indiana University Press, 1998. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The cask of amontillado, 1846. Web.
Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. New York: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1999. Print.