Abstract

Edgar Allan Poe is a famous American novelist and poet whose horror fiction, detective fiction and crime fiction are widely spread in the world. “The Cask of Amontillado”” is one of Poe’s horror fiction. The book is about a revenge plan of a declining aristocrat called Montresor who lures insolent Fortunato into the cellar and kills him in the guise of tasting the amontillado wine. The story is mainly consists of conversations between the two speakers through which we can have a clear understanding of their different personalities and mental status.

With the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the essay will analyze “The Cask of Amontillado” from the turn-taking system and cooperative principle/ politeness principle. Research result shows that the speaker always control the topic is more goal-oriented instead of polite. Moreover, the person often in violation of the cooperative principle is more immature character with rude performance in conversation.

In the horror fictions of Poe, the hero is always a murder with twisted mind and mysterious methods to kill people. But after deep analysis of the work, readers can get a reasonable explanation of the causes and consequences of the killing. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, the effective use of conversation skills helps the murder succeed his revenge while the lack of talking strategies leads the death of the victim.

When appreciating Poe’s works, turn-taking theory and cooperation principle/politeness principle are useful tools make readers calm and objective in the horror atmosphere. What’s more, the essay helps people have a better understanding of criminal psychology and ways to have a harmonious conversation with others.

Though this paper applies turn-taking and CP/PP rules to the study of “The Cask of Amontillado”, there are inevitably some limitations in it, such as the subjectivity of the data collection and limitation of results’ application.

Keywords: criminal: conversation analysis: turn-taking: cooperative principle

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Background of the Study-1

1.2 Purpose of the Study-2

1.3 Significance of the Study-2

1.4 Structure of the Study-2

2. Literature Review-3

2.1 Conversation Analysis-3

2.2 Turn-taking-3

2.3 The Cooperative Principle and the Politeness Principle-3

2.3.1 The Cooperative Principle-3

2.3.2 The Politeness Principle-4

2.4 Brief Introduction of “The Cask of Amontillado”-4

2.5 Brief Introduction of “The Cask of Amontillado”-5

2.5.1 Review of Studies about Poe-5

2.5.2 Review of Studies about “The Cask of Amontillado”-5

3. Analysis of Turn-taking in “The Cask of Amontillado”-7

3.1 Luring into the Cellar-7

3.2 Walking in the Cellar-8

3.3 Implementing the Crime-9

4. Analysis of the Cooperation Principle in “The Cask of Amontillado”-10

4.1 The Violation of Quality Maxim-10

4.2 The Violation of Quantity Maxim-10

4.3 The Violation of Manner Maxim-10

5. The Violation of the Politeness Principle-11

6. Conclusion-12

6.1 Main Findings-12

6.2 Limitations and Suggested Further Research-13

References-14