Revenge In The Cask Of Amontillado

Dorothy Parker is famous for her quote "Revenge is a dish best served cold". But what is revenge? The Oxford Dictionary defines revenge as to exact punishment or expiation for a wrong on behalf of, especially in a resentful or vindictive spirit. The story of “The cask of amontillado’’ by Edgar Allan Poe is about a dark take on someone’s willingness to exact his vengeance.
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

To finally take said action against his friend and seek his vengeance, Montresor gets the idea to trick him into going inside his vault, where he plans to do his unjust deed. Fortunato is a 'rich, respected, admired, and beloved, man that is also member of the Masons and proud of his ability to judge wines. Fortunato in this story wears a clown or a fool 's costume which is ironic since Montresor intends to make a fool of the man and pledges to take his revenge upon him by taking this to his advantage of the man’s love for wine and provoking the his pride by saying "And yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your own’’ (Poe 1846) and doing this it is his pride that eventually leads him to his demise. Were as it being Montresor 's pride in his family motto may very well have led him into committing a totally gratuitous murder, by reason of his so-called imagined injuries and insults of his “friend”