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Montresor In The Cask Of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe

887 Words4 Pages

An antihero is a character in a short story that lacks heroic attributes. A protagonist is the main figure in a short story. Montresor is an antihero and protagonist mainly because he is seeking revenge on his friend for insulting him. Furthermore, there are other reasons Montresor fits the definition of an antihero superbly. He is an unreliable and unsympathetic narrator with a braggish character. Montresor is driven to commit murder because he believes in it and is fond of it. The author is conveying various themes that tell how Montresor gets away with murder, but is still devoured by hate. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allan Poe portrays Montresor as an antihero in order to reveal the lengths humans will go to get revenge for betrayal. …show more content…

Montresor confesses he wants revenge for Fortunato’s insult and explains how he will begin it. Poe describes that Fortunato has crossed the line with insults toward the narrator, Montresor, so revenge is desired. Montresor has never given Fortunato a reason to doubt his goodness, so he knows Fortunato will fall for his trickery. Since both men have an expertise in wine, Montresor tells Fortunato, already drunk, he has a cask of Amontillado in his vaults to give him (108). The audience does not know exactly what Fortunato said to Montresor, but it surely is not as bad as what Fortunato will receive. Fortunato is drunk from the carnival and is determined to get the Amontillado, which makes it perfect timing for Montresor to begin his revenge. The first few paragraphs indicate how extensive a human’s vengeance is just from being betrayed. Montresor does not only think it is necessary to kill people, but enjoys doing it. Montresor talks with Fortunato along their journey to reach the Amontillado. Montresor keeps telling Fortunato they can turn back since the nitre is causing him to cough and there are other wines to enjoy (Poe 110). Montresor and the audience know he is trying to appear protective of Fortunato, but inside, he is determined to kill his partner. Fortunato’s slow dissention to death reveals Montresor is an antihero seeking …show more content…

Not only does the audience not have any sympathy for Montresor, but he is not someone people can relate to. Montresor explains that he thrusts a torch through the remaining hole of the plaster after not hearing a response, and finishes off Fortunato. Suddenly, he only hears the ringing of bells from his jester hat in return (Poe 113). Montresor has a personality full of extreme vengeance. Although people make mistakes, most do not involve murder; therefore, Montresor’s unsympathetic character is a good fit. The last paragraph seems as if Montresor is bragging about his sin. Montresor tells, “For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them” (Poe 113). Montresor is saying fifty years has passed, and still no one has found out about him murdering Fortunato. His words can be thought of as braggish, because he got away with such a horrible crime over the years. It's almost like he wants a pat on the back for this “achievement.” Due to not having any sympathy from the audience and bragging about murder, Montresor fulfills the definition of an

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Secondly, Montresor is vengeful in the cask of Montresor because he is always seeking revenge for Fortunato. The reason for the revenge was a long-standing grudge and betrayal. Montresor says “I have my doubts.” It starts with the grudge that Montresor was holding against Fortunado, even though lots of time went by. He still held this

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He was so filled with spite, that he felt like murder was the only way to avenge his family’s name. It is unfortunate that he thought that the best way to do it. Montresor builds up his betrayal of Fortunato from early on. The way the he fakes their friendship, and the way he continually gives Fortunato wine is just a part of his plan of betrayal. He even showes Fortunato the very trowel that would incase him in brick.

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As said in the short story Fortunato insults Montresor in the past: “THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (Poe ). Due to Fortunato’s insults and his past injuries that he dealt to Montresor, Montresor plans his revenge and waits it out for the perfect time. As soon as the insult reaches Montresor’s ears his revenge is already placed in stone: “At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely, settled” (Poe ). His reaction to Fortunato’s insult compels him to end their relationship and plot out his vengeance. Montresor’s revenge might be overdue as it is revealed that Fortunato has wronged Montresor more than once.

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In Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor is a diabolical character set on revenge for an injustice he perceives as unforgivable. While the nature of such injustice is never justly stated, it is clear Montresor takes his family motto “Nemo me impune lacessit” (Poe 16), to heart. “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 14). This final injury, although never stated, is the unraveling of Montresor and at length he would be avenged (Poe 14). Hatred and revenge are the driving factors of Montresor’s disquiet and he cannot rest until Fortunato has been dealt the punishment he believes he deserves.

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Montresor is exquisite at manipulating others. For example, line 5 states “I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts.” said Montresor. To better explain, this line shows how Montresor tempts Fortunato to his vault. Furthermore, in line 24, he states “there were no attendants at home…

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Montresor’s Revenge The killing of Fortunato was no mistake. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor gets revenge on Fortunato by locking him in a catacomb until he dies. Poe’s use of irony helps to describe the characters and make this short story of revenge interesting to read since no one knows why Montresor is getting revenge. Montresor is a vengeful and manipulative person.

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Revenge Is A Powerful To Mess With People on average spend eighty percent plotting their revenge on other people. In the story "The Cask of Amontillado," by Edgar Allen Poe, Montresor tell the reader that Fortunato insulted him and he vows his revenge. Throughout the story Montresor lets Fortunato get really drunk. Then he leads Fortunato into t eh catacombs under his mansion and chains home to a wall and buries him alive. We know that Montresor is vengeful, concerned, and determined.

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One who would read the story would tell you that the whole thing is about revenge and it can be looked at as revenge twists the mind of a person who is vengeful, to begin with, or as revenge is a driving force behind a person going so far as to commit a murder. Such a person might be so obsessed with vengeance that he imagines reasons to obtain it are the right doing. In this story, Montresor 's family prides itself on leaving no insult unavenged. Montresor 's obsession with this has perhaps made him imagine that Fortunato has insulted his family just so that he, Montresor, has something to try his family 's pride on. As when the narrator says ‘’THE thousand injuries of

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“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge (The Cask of Amontillado).” Montresor desires revenge and decides to take action with his own hands. “I continued as was my won 't, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile NOW was at the thought of his immolation (The Cask of Amontillado).” Around dusk, during the carnival season madness; Montresor encountered his friend, Fortunato, alone and drunk, which allowed Montresor his chance for revenge. At length, we arrived at the entry way to the Catacombs, standing together on the damp ground.

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While it is clear that Montresor was not insane, it is possible that he was in an emotional turmoil. This emotional disorder propelled the urge for revenge. In fact, the entire story is proof of his troubled conscience. He confesses to an individual how he committed the murder even when he was not caught for over 50 years. At the end of the story, he says, “for the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them (Poe 10).”

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Being an unreliable narrator makes the reader wonder how much he had to include deceit in his story simply to justify his actions to himself. It is very possible that Fortunato was not, in fact, deserving of his death in this manner, and Montresor took a few of his innocent gestures or deeds the wrong way. His personality is full of deceit in the way that he manipulates people into giving him what he wants, too. In hindsight of the murder, Montresor recalls that “he had a weak point--this Fortunato--although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared. He prided himself on his connoisseurship of wine” (Poe 87).

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Montresor decides to take revenge from Fortunato. He takes Fortunato to his house, and they go down to some underground passageways where his warehouse is so that Fortunato gives his opinion about an amontillado wine barrel that supposedly Montresor has received but doubts about

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Some hints of the possible cause of Montresor’s grief are offered between paragraphs 55 and 66 as Fortunato does a “grotesque movement” which is seemingly a sign of membership in the Free Masons. When Montresor shows his confusion and proceeds to claim he is a part of the Masons Fortunato’s derision for him seems to come out as he says, “You? Impossible! A Mason?” Whether this seeming air of superiority that Fortunato holds over him is the root cause of his desire for vengeance is never

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Even after half a century, Montresor shows no remorse for murdering Fortunato. Instead, his obsession with his clever plan leads him to look back only to acquire a satisfying feeling. Although Montresor is a classic example of an unreliable character, Poe reveals the truth about human nature through his compulsive actions. We pretend to not relate to Montresor as he has a severe case of OCD. However, we can 't deny that jealousy and hate have never evoked in our hearts from a simple statement in the form of an insult, although most wouldn 't kill

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Fortunado, Montresor’s victim, has an alchohol problem. Basically, both Fortunado and Montresor have good traits as well as bad. Montresor is unable to easily control his anger for the most part of The Cask of Admontillado. His anger towards Fortunado caused Montresor to murder him. Not only that, but Montresor also yells as loud as he possibly could when Fortunado scream after relizing he was captured and chained against the wall.

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