Montresor Is Guilty

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,

In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor is guilty of the cold-blooded murder of Fortunato and should go to jail for his crime. Montresor speaks of the “thousand injuries” Fortunato caused him and, more recently, the “insult” that Montresor cannot forgive. Vowing to seek retribution, Montresor comments on the importance of ensuring his own innocence throughout the process of revenge. He goes out of his way to be friendly to Fortunato. Other evidence that supports the crime as being preconceived includes Montresor preying on Fortunato’s weakness, his love of wine and his conceited nature. He praises Fortunato on his knowledge of wine and taunts him with the full barrel that he just purchased asking him for his expert opinion. In preparation

Montresor talks about Fortunato’s insult and his vow of revenge, but he also mentions his supposed family’s motto, no one attacks me with impunity, which is actually the motto of Scotland. From this information we can infer that Montresor 's family motto is not actually this and that he is a liar. We can then speculate that since Montresor had done this fifty years ago as told when Montresor says:

Fortunato,” ‘I should like your opinion. But if you are too busy, I will get Luchesi’s advice. If anyone is a good judge, he is’”(Poe 68). The citation shows Montresor's deceitfulness since he is trying to guilt Fortunato to come with him. By saying he would like Fortunato's advice, it’s guilting Fortunato to come into the catacombs; only a brilliant and deceitful man could come up with this proposal. I can deduce that without Montresor's deviance, he would’ve never been able to trick Fortunato into the catacombs and to his death. Montresor's deceitfulness also fooled Fortunato to help him in carrying out his own death. Montresor tricks Fortunato into drinking for his cough, intoxicating him more and more with each sip. “I do not wish to alarm you-but you should take care of yourself. A drink of this Medoc will defend you from the damp”( Poe 69). This cite reveals how Montresor is tricking Fortunato into killing himself practically, and helping Montresor succeed. I can summarize that Montresor planned from the beginning to fool Fortunato into helping him by

From the very beginning of the story, one can obviously see that Montresor thinks that he has been wronged by Fortunato. His plan for vengeance is easily seen through his actions and his thoughts. "He had a weak

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

Mr. Montresor stated that he intended to murder Mr. Fortunato, and even went as far as planning Mr. Fortunato’s tedious death, I find this very questionable of Mr. Montresor’s innocence. Mr. Montresor also hadn’t received a harmful threat from Mr. Fortunato, just insults; nor did Mr. Montresor receive any physical harm that would endanger Mr. Montresor’s life, therefore Mr. Fortunato was an innocent man, which is also quite questionable to Mr. Montresor’s innocence.

In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor tells the story of how he got revenge on Fortunato. There are differing opinions on why Montresor is telling the story: is it a confession or is it so he can relive the perfect crime he committed? After close examination of the story, it becomes evident that Montresor is bragging about committing the perfect crime. The story is not a confession because Montresor boasts about his cleverness at luring Fortunato down to the catacombs and taunts Fortunato multiple times without remorse.

In “Cask Of Amontillado” Montresor seems to have Fortunato's best interests in mind until his true intentions are revealed through his thoughts, not his actions. This is showing how Montresor is careful in his revenge; Fortunato disrespected Montresor, being the wicked and revengeful person he is must make him pay for his mistake. Therefore, Montresor carefully planned out his attack, he had every detail carefully outlined in his head. He made no mistakes; while Fortunato unknowingly made the biggest mistake of his life. Montresor felt satisfied and happy with the horrible crime he committed. While he was burying Fortunato alive, he enjoyed the screams of his foe, relishing in the fact that he won. “...felt

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

‘And the motto?’ ‘Nemo me impune lacessit’” (Poe 1). Simply translated, this means “no one provokes me with impunity.” The family motto indicates that pride of family honor has been a long-standing and well-guarded trait. Montresor’s ancestry and history of pride elevates his grievance against Fortunato, and evokes an attack because he dared to belittle Montresor’s honorable name. In fact, Montresor’s pride is still so great, and his remorse so little, that he continues to gasconade about his revenge fifty years after the event. The pride of his family name forces Montresor to murder Fortunato, conclusively and irreversibly directing his decisions throughout the short story.

Montresor was seconded guessing himself, instead of feeling about the murder him and having relief, he would instead feel guilt. Montresor set his plan by sending his servants away to the carnival. He did this to make sure he had an alibi. While two of his men stay behind as they explore the deep vaults that are full of dead bodies of the Montresor family. He wants to bring Fortunato back to his house, but he refuses. Fortunato is accepting wine even though he is starting to get a cough. “The wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled” (Page. 175, Line 51) Fortunato make this hand movement, that is apart of the masons. This is a secret handshake with the masons, but Montresor swears up and down that he knows mason. Montresor doesn't even know the handshake, but Fortunato wanted proof. Montresor shows him the handshake, but Fortunato doesn't buy it. So both of them went on there way.

Montresor said that he “must not only punish, but punish with impunity” (Montresor57). His plan is premeditated, he has everything planned down to the bone. From his staff being gone for the carnival, to the type of wine but also using reverse psychology to lure Fortunato down into the caverns. When they reach the caverns he has also already removed the old bones from the niche in the wall where he plans to keep fortunato for eternity. Montresor was so keen on destroying Fortunato he removed his ancestors from their resting place in the wall to keep Fortunato. Fortunato has no idea what is happening until it’s actually happening which is all a part of Montresor’s plan, to keep him intoxicated enough not to care about anything except for the

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