Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Cask Of Amontillado'

I know you've thought about killing someone, but you're too worried about the consequences. In the short story "Cask of Amontillado" The protagonist, Montresor feels hatred toward this man Fortunato and is determined to get revenge with impunity. In "Lamb to the slaughter" a wife unsure of her feelings murders her husband. The stories are similar because the authors both create a effect of suspense while they use different types of irony and conflicts.

To develop the analytical paper about the text “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, some sources will be used to support the thesis statement, which is “The author uses irony in the text to illustrate the murder of Fortunado by Montresor, who seeks salvation through death”. Also, there is going to be an analysis on the irony found in the text in relation with the story. To support this thesis, I am going to use some examples from some sources such as “Literary analysis: Irony in The Cask of Amontillado" by Amelia Tibbett, “Irony in "The Cask of Amontillado” by Kerry Michael Wood, and “Poe 's Short Stories Summary and Analysis” by Bella Wang , and the text will be written in the third person.

The first person narration happens in an untrustworthy viewpoint on the focal conflict of the story, man against man, because the reader perceives scarce information about the thoughts of the antagonist, Fortunato, and concludes in a very skewed outlook on the conflict of the main characters. The dispute essences around the pride and honor of two men, and the measures that one of the men will go to in order to protect his honor to the other. Fortunato is described as a vain and arrogant man whose weaknesses are magnified by the fact that he has had too much to drink. The dispute between the two men is somewhat one-sided because it is likely that Fortunato was ignorant of the fact that a serious disagreement existed between himself and Montresor until the very end of his life. What one

Edgar Allan Poe; a famous all American Poet, short story writer and critic. Some of his most famous writings include Raven and The Cask of Amontillado. His writings all include horror or some type of mystery. Edgar did not have the “white picket fence” type of life. His was like riding on a rollercoaster, full of difficulties, but he turned out to be a writing genius. But I think that alcohol, and unsupportive family impacted Poe’s writing style, as well as the difficulties in his life.

Another indirect factor that could contribute to Montresor’s vengeful act, and thus the story’s theme of revenge, is his state of mind. Some critics have analyzed the opening line of this short story and have determined that it could contribute to an insane state of mind. When the opening line states, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge,” it does not describe what the insult is. The fact that Montresor does not give a specific description of the insult leads many critics to believe that Montresor has acted irrationally in murdering Fortunato and that he is insane. Another example of Montresor’s insanity is found when he replies to Fortunato’s screams (Baraban). In the story, Montresor states, “I replied to the yells of him who clamoured. I re-echoed, I aided, I surpassed them in volume and in strength” (Poe 1616). Critics view this statement as contributing to Montresor’s unstable state of mind, and thus contributing to his act of revenge (Baraban).

Even before the medical field of psychology was recognized, American writer Edgar Allan Poe shone a spotlight on some of the complicated mechanisms of the human brain in his works. Living a troubled life himself, Poe has a keen understanding of the complexities of the human brain and their effects on thoughts, feelings, and behavior. At first glance, Poe’s writing usually tends to creates a dark and gloomy atmosphere, one that immediately foreshadows doom for the protagonist. Poe’s understanding of the human mind and the elements of psychology are clearly marked in stories such as “The Cask of Amontillado.” In Poe’s stories, he presents complex characters who become susceptible to the diverse forces of the mind such as reverse psychology, guilt, superstition, perversity, revenge, and schizophrenia. First published in 1846, “The Cask of Amontillado” is an instance of Poe combining psychological elements of two distinct characters. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor’s brilliant use of reverse psychology, and his perversity and guilt are what forms him as an unbalanced, psychologically driven character.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story Cask of the Amontillado, the main character Fortunato undergoes being buried alive, essentially, in the wine cellar in his own estate. The person responsible for this death is a man named Montresor. The theme in this tale is that of revenge. Montresor, the main antagonist and murderer, claims his vengeance is justified and that while he is committing a crime he is doing so justifiably. Raymond Struckhart of Berlin University, in Germany also concurs my position; by also claiming Montresor is to blame. The argument in this paper is that Montresor is not only delusional to his claims of justification, but also that his crime of killing Fortunato is not justified; and that in fact it is out right murder. Therefore to reiterate the thesis of this paper is, the killing of Fortunato by the hands of Montresor, despite his claims of justification, is just an excuse for murder and not justified by any means. The paper examines the work of Raymond Stuckhart, Elizabeth Dowager, and Barbara Cane as proof to my claims. The paper begins by identifying what “injury” Fortunato enacted upon Montresor and its justifiability. Next the paper examines the correlation between pure revenge and Montresor 's warped sense of morality and justice. With this in mind, one can deduce the guilty nature of Montresor and lack of justification.

When used properly, withholding information that is vital to the story without angering the reader, can keep many readers returning to solve a question. Or, at least, keep a story in a readers head even if they did not enjoy reading it. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is a famous example of holding back information to keep the reader looking for more. It is done in such a way that it almost makes sense that the narrator, Montressor, does not tell us why he murders Fortunato, because, according to him, “you, who so well know the nature of my soul”, should already know this. (Poe 35) However, there are also way to use the same narrative technique, to hide vital information from the reader, but in search of the opposite effect, complete

Thus, it is evident that the narrator is psychologically and emotionally disturbed and his evil and uncontrollable desires for vengeance drive his evil plans. It is disturbing to learn that the narrator, meticulously and wickedly lures Fortunato to his sure death without any remorse or guilty

Throughout the story the narrator continues to show this side of him. The text states, “...but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” This textual evidence supports the claim by illustrating how he want Fortunato dead because of a little insult. Another example showing the insanity of the narrator is shown on page 4 which says, “We continued our route in search of the amontillado…

Montresor has always resented Fortunato for his actions towards him and suffered over fifty years from guilt and torment. As said by the narrator “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had

Fortunato for example was an awkward, clumsy, and egotistical drunk, whose main concern was when he would take his next drink. Michael Lewis suggests that Fortunato did not mean to mistreat Montresor or disturb his happiness, but his decisions to drown away his sorrows opened up a can of worms for Fortunato (Lewis, Explicator). Fortunato was over-indulging on sherry to build his confidence while stripping that of the other gentlemen, particularly Montresor. Now, for Montresor, Fortunato’s alcoholism was no excuse for his constant barrage of misdirected insults. Consequently, Montresor goes

In the first sentence of the story the narrator says, ‘“THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge’,” (Poe 1). The narrator has been taking the bad mouthing of Fortunato for years but he states that one major insult ended it all for him. The narrator also states, “ We came at length to the foot of the descent, and stood together upon the damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresors,” (Poe 2). I believe the narrator brought Fortunato to the catacombs of the Montresors to have him die with all the people he wronged. Because of these quotes from the story we can assume that the reason the narrator wants to kill Fortunato is because of the insults towards his family that have

He is surprised to find the real Amontillado, but his astonishment does not last long. He is really frightened by Montresor’s behavior. First, he regains his consciousness completely and gives “a low moaning cry”. When he finds out that Montresor intends to kill me, he is terrified and bursts out “a succession of loud and shrill screams”. Fortunato is so terrified, helpless and desperate that he has a mental breakdown and becomes insane.

In the story “Cask of Amontillado” the Fortunato insults Montresor, and Montresor thought that the only just punishment, was death. He leads the arrogant Fortunato to his death with giving him multiple chances to turn back.