Comparing Power in Cask of Amontillado, Rappaccinis Daughter, and Bart

Power in Poe's Cask of Amontillado, Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter, Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, Phelps' Angel over the Right Shoulder and Child's The Quadroon In Poe's The Cask of Amontillado Montressor seeks his revenge (for an imagined offense) on Fortunado. He manipulates Fortunado into beliving that he is a friend and that they are going through the crypt. He uses Fortunado's "weak point" --his love of alcohol-- against him. He creates the illusion of concern by insisting that they turn around to save poor Fortunado's health. Montressor manipulates the entire situation from beginning to end. His greatest achievement is that Fortunado would know what was happening to him by dying a slow death and more importantly, he would know who was behind the elaborate plan for his death. Montressor (who is mentally unstable) is a corrupt man who thrives off of the power he has (had) over Fortunado. In Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter we find two instances of a power struggle and manipulation. The Scientist has used his daughter in an experimental attempt to give her a one-of-a-kind gift. Failing in his attempt he has in a sense "cursed" his daughter. He has taken away her power to choose her own life--she is at the mercy of her "gift" and is suffering the results of his ambition. Baglioni uses Giovanni in a different way. He uses Giovanni to gain power over Rappaccini. He manipulates Giovanni into thinking that Rappaccini is corrupt and that Beatrice can be saved by his antidote. Rappaccini is corrupt because he uses his daughter to practice his scientific experiments. If his intention to enable her with a gift was indeed genuine then he may not be as "wicked" as Baglioni. Baglioni's intentions were purely evil. He man... ... the characters in this story are all manipulated and repressed by the power of the social code of the time regarding quadroons. Everything in the story hinges not only on the social pressures, but also on the fragility of love. She belives that he will love her (even though he is not legally bound to her) and together they could face the injustice of the world or merely hide from it. Due to his ambition, he betrays her and leaves her and his daughter. He does no service to either of the three women--his common-law wife by breaking her heart and leaving her to cope with a child, the child left without a father and a social outcast, and his new wife by marrying her just for the social and economic position it would bring him and especially since she learns that he is still in love with the other woman. The victims in this story are manipulated by one man's ambition.