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The Cask Of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe

575 Words3 Pages

The Cask Of Amontillado is a short story that tells of a man named Montresor, who harbors a deep-seated hatred for a man named Fortunato. Montresor thinks of Fortunato as an enemy for a perceived slight towards him. Throughout the story, the characters and symbolism create a deep and dark atmosphere that emphasizes the story's greater themes of pride, deception, and ultimately, revenge. The story opens with Montresor luring Fortunato into the catacombs beneath his family's palazzo with the promise of allowing Fortunato to sample a rare wine named Amontillado. When they reach the catacomb's depths, Montresor chains Fortunato to a wall and seals him with Fortunato still alive. The story's first central character is of course that of Montresor, …show more content…

His only motivation for his later actions are driven by the presumed insult that Fortunato has caused him, and while the true reason is not explicitly stated, Montresor has obviously had his pride damaged in some way. Because of this, he decides that he must reestablish his honor by enacting retribution upon Fortunato. Montresor also shows extreme patience when carrying out his actions. He bides his time, and awaited the perfect moment to enact his vengeance. He is strikingly calm, despite orchestrating the death of another. In addition, he voices his anger at Fortunado's apparent flippancy and lack of remorse towards his previous actions. This is a great irony, as it is revealed that Montresor was reciting this story 50 years after the event itself, and feels absolutelv no remorse. Conversely, Fortunato is shown to be almost the exact opposite of Montresor. He is depicted to be gullible and quite vain; a wine connoisseur who is very prideful of his knowledge of fine wine. Montresor exploits this vanity as a means to manipulate him, luring Fortunato to …show more content…

The story being set in the catacombs emphasizes the atmosphere of foreboding and despair. The catacombs themselves are already a place of death and decay; Montresor's revenge is already finalized the moment that Fortunato was naive enough to step inside. The catacombs show the finality of the revenge, and perhaps even some of Montresor's own foresight. The labyrinthine nature of the catacombs, with winding passages and hidden recesses creates anxiety and a sense of claustrophobia. It can also symbolize Montresor's descent into madness and vengeance, as he becomes consumed by his perceived redress. The cask itself is one of the most important symbols. It shows the difference between the characters and their motivations: Montresor, using the promise of the cask to manipulate Fortunato into following him to his death, and Fortunato himself, who is obsessed with his own desire to taste the rare wine that he doesn't see the danger coiling around him until it is much too late. The Cask of Amontillado is a story of pride, revenge and madness. Montresor and Forunato are two characters who represent different aspects of human nature, and both end

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Montresor begins his story by expressing his excitement over the future events that would culminate in Fortunato’s death. When he sees Fortunato one day during carnival season, he is so overcome with excitement that he says, “I was so pleased to see him, that I thought I never should have done wringing his hand” (1). Montresor reveals his true conscience by showcasing his enthusiasm for Fortunato’s future demise; in doing so, he shows that he is incapable of compassion and has no guilt. Because of his inability to feel guilty over what is to come, Montresor’s confession of the crime has no remorse. It lacks the grief associated with remorse and is more of a brag.

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This is represented by, the way Montressor wants to punish Fortunato because of the hatred he has for him and his understanding of why Fortunato has treated him so poorly. Also the way Montressor makes it seem like revenge is the right and necessary thing to do to correct the wrong Fortunato has done to him. As well as, how Montressor ultimately manipulates Fortunato.

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Montresor’s manipulation of Fortunato is a very important element in this story, and in fact is what the entire story is about. Montresor takes advantage of a few qualities of Fortunato. First, he takes advantage of Fortunato’s connoisseurship of wine. Because Fortunato is a virtuoso in identifying wine, this allows Montresor to draw him in with an offer, if Fortunato can tell the quality of the wine, he and Montresor will win big. However, this is only the start of the manipulation.

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Throughout the text, Montresor’s obsession with pride is evident as it consumes him entirely. He perceives every thought and action through the lens of preserving and elevating his own honour, a concept deeply

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5. A theme statement for “The Cask of Amontillado” is to encourage readers that revenge doesn’t get you anywhere because after it done you’ll have a strong feeling of regret. In the short story Montressor kills his friend and it wasn’t worth it at the end of the day because he started feeling

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Montresor tortures Fortunato, both physiologically and physically. Montresor clearly gives Fortunato “multiple chances to escape his fate” (Delany 34), as he gives Fortunato obvious clues to his true intensions. These include leading Fortunato into a place for the dead, telling Fortunato not to go due to his severe cough that made it “impossible to reply” (Poe 5) at times, reminding Fortunato of his family arms, mentioning Luchesi, and showing Fortunato a trowel. Montresor seems to receive morbid joy out of the fact that Fortunato is so intoxicated that, just like the foot on Montresor’s coat of arms, he is unintentionally “stepping into his own destruction” (Cervo

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The narrator Montresor is not reliable. He tells the story from his point of view. Montresor is plotting to seek revenge on Fortunato for causing him “thousdand injuries and insult” Montresor is so angry with Fortunato he is planning on murdering him. As the reader we don’t know what Fortunato did to cause Montresor so be so angry to agree with him that Fortunato deserves to be murdered. Throughout the story Montresor is being deceitful by luring Fortunato to his death.

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During the story, Montresor is also

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As the story progresses it becomes exceptionally evident the role external conflict plays in creating Montresor’s character. To begin, Montresor mentions “the thousand injuries of Fortunato” and the revenge he is determined to get from the most recent injury, an insult (Poe 543). By Montresor choosing to open the story with remarks about Fortunato’s wrong doings towards him, it’s clear that he holds a grudge. These conflicts between the two men throughout their friendship have had such an impression on Montresor that it’s over taken him – it’s all he can think about; thus, he immediately mentions these conflicts at the beginning of the story. In result, Montresor as a character appears quite hostile and as a narrator appears unreliable.

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In the beginning of the story the author's choice of words in the descriptions makes the reader feel angry. Montresor tried to ignore Fortunato and his insults, but they were

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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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Montresor is a grudge holder. In the beginning, Montresor, explains why he is angry with Fortunato, but didn’t come into detail of what he did to him. Evidently, Fortunato injured and insulted Montresor, who says that he has endured peacefully as Fortunato repeatedly offended him thousands of time. Fifty year ago, Fortunato use to deny what Montresor would say about, who he was or what he had done, as if it was untrue. Montresor would argue back and forth with him explaining that it was true.

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2065 Words | 9 Pages

For the rest of Montresor’s life, he has to hold on to the secret that he murdered Fortunato. Secrets such as these take a toll on individuals. Another take on “The Cask of Amontillado” is that Fortunato acts as a symbol for Montresor. By killing Fortunato, Montresor is also symbolically killing a part of himself that he is ashamed to possess.

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He is a very static character through the entire length of the story. Based on his actions, Montresor is the antagonist, and he shows this at the

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Montresor told Fortunato that he is a “rich, respected, admired, beloved” (86) man. He does not actually think that. When he says he “must not only punish” (83) Fortunato, but he must “punish [him] with impunity” (83), which he does. The first step in Montresor's plan is to get Fortunato to go in the catacombs. He says to Fortunato, “Come, we will go back, your health is precious” (86).

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