The divide between commercial and literary fiction, though not stark, can be clearly interpreted with the proper analysis.
The short stories Roman Fever and The Cask of Amontillado are perfect examples of this. Both contain many of the same elements, but quickly differentiate with further examination. In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Cask of Amontillado, the protagonist, Montressor, is driven to murder a former acquaintance by a mysterious and unexplained past event that has irreparably harmed him.Tricking him into believing he is treating Fortunato to a fine wine, Montressor seals him off in his crypt where presumably he dies. By having a character powerfully motivated by an event of the distant past, Poe employs a hallmark of literary fiction.
While Edith Wharton’s short story Roman Fever also draws upon events of the past, t
...hey are presented in a much different light. Grace and Alida happen to meet up by accident, and are not motivated to execute a predetermined scheme as in the case of Montressor.Though we are not provided with details, the unfortunate events of Montressor and Fortunato’s past were one sided with the latter having an upper hand. Montressor balances this by murdering Fortunato.
In Roman Fever, however, the two sparring women have actually reached an equilibrium of sorts by their past actions. Alida was married to Delphin for 25 years but Delphin had also fathered a child with Grace prior to his marriage to Alida. As with most works of commercial fiction, Roman Fever’s central focus is on the characters and their interactions.Fast paced, easy reading stems from this character development. The Cask of Amontillado, though, focuses on the plot as a
whole and the repercussions of each characters actions rather than limiting itself to petty and often unnecessary dialogue amongst them.
The purpose of commercial fiction is to act as an escape from reality while literary fiction is intended to highlight its glaring shortcomings. This is where most similarities come to an abrupt end. Much of Roman Fever is spent describing the beauty of Rome and unnecessarily romanticizes what is quite simply only a city setting.Though entertaining, it has little connection to the plot and the story would not suffer had the location been different. For The Cask of Amontillado, however, Poe minces few words by briefly setting the stage and quickly immerses the reader into a dark atmosphere of festered disdain.
The setting ties in perfectly while providing scholarly elements such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and advanced vernacular. Roman Fever features a surprise and ill-conceived ending that is blatantly revealed.In The Cask of Amontillado, the death of Fortunato was cringe-inducing and vividly executed. Rather than only surprising the reader, the final scenes of the story trigger a full spectrum of emotions that shake our core beliefs on humanity. Though there are similarities, when broken down to their basic structures we see that each story was in fact written in a different style and with varying intentions.
Both were effectively written to achieve the goals of their genre and did so through alternate literary techniques.
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