Montresor And Fortunato Essay

Montresor tells the story in detail of how he leads a man, Fortunato, to his death. Montresor repeatedly expresses the need to kill Fortunato because he has done something to insult him and he must pay for it with his life. Montresor tells readers early in the story that he is going to be lying to Fortunato’s face by acting one way, but thinking about killing him the whole time. He says "I continued, as was my wont, to smile in

Conflict: For Montresor to revenge himself for Fortunato’s insult, he has to get away with it – if Fortunato can revenge him back,

Some people believe that Fortunato should have seen Montresor’s evil plan coming, and that he deserved this fate. At the very beginning of the story, Montresor “The thousand

     We don’t really know much about Fortunato: just enough to know that he must not have really known the true heart of his friend. He must not have

“There isn’t much to say, one day Mr. Fortunato decided to give us the day off for the Mardi Gras festival, we found it very strange since he never gave us days off but we ignored it and enjoyed the festival. After that I never saw Mr. Fortunato again.” “Do you know if Mr. Fortunato had any enemies?” I asked. “Not that I know of…” she stopped and hesitated. “Go on” I encouraged her, “Mr. Fortunato hated Luchesi but I never heard of Luchesi having problems with Mr. Fortunato?” she paused then continued. “Maybe Montresor can help you out with that, her used to work for Mr. Fortunato as well.” “Okay, well thank you so much… uh?” “Irma” she said with half a smile “well thank so much Irma, I will try not to bother you no more.” I walked her over to the door and watched her disappear into village.

During the story Fortunato is

Montresor’s actions lend to his vengeful and manipulative nature. He lures Fortunato into the catacombs of his home to carry out his plans to kill Fortunato. In the first step of his plan, he boosts Fortunato’s ego by saying that Luchesi was almost as worthy a judge of wine as he. Then Montresor tricks Fortunato into believing that there is an

However, Montresor has a characteristic that, not shown prominently, but given through little hints until the end. That secret characteristic is guilt, guilt for wanting to kill Fortunato. Some of those hints show at the carnival, down in Montresor’s catacombs, and even as Montresor is building in the wall to keep Fortunato in to die. At the carnival, Montresor calls Fortunato his ‘friend’. “It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend.” (Poe). In addition, Montresor is talking about Fortunato, with the term friend being used. Another is, “I was so pleased to see [Fortunato]...” (Poe). In this part of the story, Montresor even says himself that he was happy to see his friend, Fortunato. He shows signs of actually liking Fortunato, but for strongly believing in his family motto and arms of revenge, he feels the need to get revenge on Fortunato for what he did to Montresor. Montresor greets Fortunato kindly and with warmth, “[m]y dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day!” (Poe). Montresor

Montresor does this by flattering and acting concerned about the health of Fortunato when really his only concern is killing Fortunato. While in the wine cellar, Montresor says to Fortunato, “Come, we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible. Besides, there is Luchesi-.” Montresor does an excellent job of being Fortunatos’ friend and at the same time convinces him to continue drinking and telling him, “A draught of this Medoc will defend us from the damps.” Montresor was not trying to defend either one of them, his only purpose was to place Fortunato into a higher state of drunkenness. Montresor causes Fortunato to become so drunk that while he was being chained to the wall by Montresor, “He was too much astounded to resist.” “The Cask of Amontillado” is filled with many ironies and also life lessons; such as know who your real friends are. Fortunato thought his real friend was Montresor when, in reality, Montresor was anything but his friend. Not only did Montresor fake his sincerity towards Fortunato, he was also vengeful and very intelligent in his actions to kill Fortunato.

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

This keeps the audience with suspense, and fear; wanting to know what was going to happen with Fortunato. Had Montresor put something on his drink?

Hoping to obtain revenge, Montresor, the narrator, lures Fortunato, one of his friends, into the depths of his

There is a lot of evidence of premeditation in this story all leading to the demise of Fortunato. The narrator wants to get revenge but have no consequences for the murder. Early in the story the narrator states, “At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely, settled --but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk,” (Poe 1). When the narrator states his idea of getting revenge without getting caught. This shows how much of a planner he is for this murder. He will plan the perfect way to kill without anyone knowing. The narrator also states, “It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend,” (Poe 1). The setting for this murder almost seems to perfect. It’s dark outside during carnival, later suggesting that everyone is drunk. This tells the reader that the narrator planned for this exact moment in which he will get revenge. Because of these quotes in the story the reader can suggest that the narrator has premeditated this

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.

As they walk into Montresor’s damp vaults to get the wine, it is apparent that the narrator sent all his servants to the carnival to guarantee that only he and Fortunato were at the vaults at the time. After Fortunato is heavily intoxicated with wine, Montresor ceases his moment and chains him up to a stone wall, and finally buries him alive. From the moment the two get