Babra 1

Amitej Babra

Mrs. Regnier

Honors English 9

October 23, 2019

How Pride Influences Human Nature

All stories can have a theme which is learnt specific to the story, but when it comes to

multiple stories, it is important to look for the larger theme. In the short stories “The Cask of

Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury, and “ The

Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, the author conveys elements of how pride fuels the hatred and

jealousy of the characters and how this influences their actions.

The story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, has elements of the theme that

pride influences hatred, and encourages it. In this story, Montresesor is “insulted” by Fortunato,

which hurts his pride. The text says, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best

could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 3). This reveals Montresesor’s

prideful characteristics throughout the story. He is shown as contemptuous, because he “vowed

revenge” after an insult. Montresesor seems to have a “thousand” injuries from Fortunato, but the

insult actually fuels his anger. Although the “injuries” could be presumed to be worse than just

the insult, Montresesor is still haughty. “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity” (Poe

1), is what he says, which displays how prideful characteristics fuel hatred, since one insult was

taken so deep to heart, that he forms hatred against Fortunato. Although there were other

”injuries” he wants to exact revenge because his pride was hurt so badly. This influenced his
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actions, causing him to kill Fortunato. Even if it were justifiable, without his pride and

complacency, he would have likely handled it differently.

In the story “All Summer in a Day”by Ray Bradbury, prideful characteristics are the

reason for all the terrible actions that occur throughout the story. The prideful characteristics

displayed are what causes the children to commit such crimes. After having a chance to go back

to Earth, the text states, “the children hated her for all these reasons of big and little consequence.

They hated her pale snow face, her waiting silence, her thinness, and her possible future”

(Bradbury 3). This proves how the prideful characteristics fuel their actions, or their hate for the

fact that Margot may have a “future”. Since the kids are so full of themselves, it hurts their pride

to learn that Margot is better off, just like Montresesor’s did in “The Cask of Amontillado”. This

fuels their jealousy, causing them to punish her just over the trivial matter. Jealousy would have

been okay, but pride fueled it, causing them to take needless action, by locking her up. These

actions wouldn’t happen even if they were jealous, because it was their pride, which in this case

forced the extreme decisions.

The story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant displays prideful personalities of the

protagonist, Mathilde. Mathilde feels that she deserves better, which in a sense makes her

prideful. “She grieved incessantly, feeling that she had been born for all the little niceties and

luxuries of living” (Maupassant 1). She shows her contemptuous characteristics, because she is

always unappreciative of her husband and believes that she doesn’t deserve to be poor. The

theme that prideful characteristics in a human fuels the jealousy and hatred against one another

which results in terrible actions is therefore prominent. Her jealousy against other women is

fueled because of her prideful characteristics, which causes her to force her husband to buy her

an expensive dress, ultimately putting him into more poverty. Mathilde’s pride hurts to realize
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that she won’t be able to wear jewels. This fuels her jealousy which results in her borrowing it,

and causes her to lose it because of her pride and carelessness.

In conclusion, overarching themes can be shown throughout many stories, symbolizing

an important lesson to actually learn. The theme of how pride fuels hate, resulting in terrible

things, is shown throughout each of these stories, and this overarching lesson shows the

importance of how people should be more better towards each other. Ultimately, the lack of this

theme shows how it can affect people negatively.

Word Count: 695

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Works Cited

“The Necklace.” The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassant et al., Old Mossy Press, 2016.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. Publisher Not Identified, 2016.

Tench, Jennifer, et al. All Summer in a Day. Scholastic Inc., 2012.