Revenge In The Cask Of Amontillado

For instance, Montresor says, “A moment more and I fettered him to the granite. In its surface were two iron staples, distant from each other about two feet, horizontally. From one of these depended a short chain, from the other a padlock. Throwing the links about his waist, it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it” (Poe, 7). At this point in the story, Montresor’s deceitful personality allows him to chain Fortunato inside the recess. He does not even care that he is fettering a human being inside an underground cemetery. As the story develops, Montresor’s insanity becomes more evident as he barricades Fortunato in the recess with tiers of stones. For example, Montresor says, “I laid the second tier, and the third, and the fourth” (Poe, 8). Then when Montresor was about to fit and plaster the last stone, he burned Fortunato to death. The narrator says, “I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came forth in return only a jingling of the bells” (Poe, 9). Montresor is definitely mentally unstable as he has no feeling of sorrow after burning a human to death. This is evident because Poe says that Montresor’s heart grew sick not because he just killed a person, but because of the dampness of the catacombs. Because the author portrays Montresor as such a vile and deranged human being, the reader is intrigued of how his mind

It's certain that Fortunato has no idea of Montresor's anger, and this makes the story even more tragic and frightening as the story goes on. The seemingly happy jangling of the bells on the top of Fortunato's cap become more and more sad the deeper the two venture into the catacombs. ” Edgar Allan Poe uses irony to develop his theme of a man who seeks salvation through repression. In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor is out for revenge. Montresor's only concern appears to be exacting revenge with impunity.

     In this story the character of Montresor is revealed through his own words. When he reveals he is going to punish Fortunato for merely insulting him, that he has planned the whole act of vengeance, and that he has been playing as being Fortunato’s friend, we know we are dealing with a deranged personality. His character is also revealed with references to his family. It is almost as if Poe has Montresor’s ancestors tell the reader how nicely he fits into the family tree. His legacy from his family motto “No one attacks me with impunity” and a coat of arms that depicts a serpent whose last wish before death is to poison the foot that crushed it. Does the fruit of ever fall far from the tree? Montresor is as evil as his forebears were. He shows no remorse about what he has done, even in old age. When he says, “May he rest in peace” at the end of the story, the reader gets the feeling he means, “ I hope you stay there and rot” rather than, “I hope you found joy and peace in heaven.”

Poe uses situational irony to develop the plot. Shortly after entering the catacombs, Fortunato makes a strange gesture. Montresor is confused, and states that he does not understand. Fortunato then questions if he is of the mason brotherhood, as it is apparently a commonly understood sign among masons. However, Montresor quickly proves that he is, in fact, a mason. He says, “‘It is this,’ I answered producing from beneath the folds of my roquelaire a trowel” (Poe). When Montresor is first questioned, the reader suspects that he may not be a mason as he says he is. Montresor owning a trowel proves that he is a mason because a trowel would only be of use to a mason as it is used to help build things. The trowel is later of great significance. Montresor uses the trowel to build a wall, enclosing and suffocating Fortunato. After trapping Fortunato, Montresor calls to him and receives no answer. He then places a torch through a hole in the wall, and hears the bells of Fortunato’s costume jingling. Montresor begins to reflect on what has happened. “My heart grew sick, it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so” (Poe). As

As Montresor and Fortunato reach the entrance to the catacombs, Poe adds nervousness to Montresor by using words that explain his movements or the surroundings around him and Fortunato. He is so close to murdering Fortunato, and Montresor is feeling a little doubtful on how it is going to go down. Montresor is

This describes the scene in which Fortunato realizes Montresor had begun encasing him. Poe’s haunting images and details furthered the suspense.

While walking through the catacombs Montresor tells Fortunato, “but observe the white web-work which gleams from those cavern walls” (375) This shows the reader that the walls of the cave are covered with niter. He uses the words “white web-work” to allow the reader to imagine spider webs. Spiders make spider webs to kill his prey, just like Montresor is doing to Fortunato. Poe also allows the readers to visualize the dead bodies and bones in the tomb. Montresor and Fortunato walk through the catacombs passing the bodies. “We passed through walls of piles bones with casks and puncheons intermingling into the inmost recesses of the catacombs” (276). This allows for the reader to see wine containers with bones and dead bodies. This makes a reader to be disgusted because they are seeing people decaying and dead. These contribute to the mood by making them feel gross and maybe a bit

Our protagonist, Montresor, has a deep vilification towards Fortunato who is an all-around disgusting individual that has scorned Montresor so heinously in times past as to warrant extreme and extensive punishment in one massive vendetta. Montressor, who invites a drunken Fortunato to his home, relies on cunning deception to exact his revenge. Using Fortunato's love of wine, Montresor is able to lure him into a dank cellar with the promise of a rare Amontillado keg. Excited by such wonderful news, Fortunato drinks more alcohol the whole way down in order to suppress his growing sickness in the damp environment which becomes more intensive the further they descend. Montresor's fake concern only spurs Fortunato further until they enter the isolated chamber. When Fortunato searches a small niche for the supposed Amontillado, Montressor seizes the opportunity and chains him to the damp wall without letting him sober up. Maintaining dialogue with Fortunato the entire time, Montresor slowly seals up the opening with rocks in a frightened and elated haste. Montressor then expresses relief before continuing his life regularly. (1. Meyer/Poe, 727-731) Poe’s use of disconnected characters, foreshadowing, and imagery work together to create ominous scenery and atmosphere which shock contemporary

Montresor is hurt from what Fortunato caused him and that is pain due to the things he has done to lead up to the events. It states “ THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat.”(Poe 1).  Montresor has hatred towards Fortunato, who caused damage inside him mentally making him want a form of revenge back at him. The mood of the story starts off with hatred, but now as Montresor and Fortunato are the catacombs causing the scene go to spooky. It says “Its walls had been lined with human remains piled to the vaults overhead in the fashion of the great catacombs of  Paris.”(Poe 5). Catacombs is a very odd place to look for wine because of what’s stored inside of it. One can see from this that Montresor and Fortunato have arrived to the catacombs which causes the mood of the story to change due to dead bodies surrounding them. Edgar Allan Poe expressed every detail and helped the readers envision the events with his mood changes.

However, Montresor never states what Fortunato did to offend him, alerting the reader to question if Montresor is simply imagining the thought himself, showing the signs of a mentally unstable person. Here, Montresor represents Poe’s foster father, as both commit a sin out of vengeance – Montresor murders Fortunato, and Allan disobeys the wishes of his late wife. By portraying his foster father as the murderer, Poe portrays him as evil and mentally unstable. In a way, this can also be seen as Poe’s revenge against his father. Additionally, Fortunato trusts the narrator (motivated by the promise of alcohol) even though there are foreboding presages of his coming misfortune. On the contrary, Poe did not trust his foster father’s judgement, leading to conflict between the two. At the end of Poe’s work, Fortunato begins to express his panic, when the alcohol wears off and he realizes his demise, as heard by Montresor: “I heard the furious vibrations of the chain […] a succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back” (Poe “The Cask of Amontillado”). Despite hearing the tormented cries of his victim, Montresor continues his actions determinedly, and justifies his sickened heart with the “dampness of the catacombs” (Poe “The Cask of Amontillado”). The narrator’s lack of sympathy relates to Allan’s disownment of his son. Allan never

Sometimes friends can get into an argument and some things can hurt them, but not to a point where they want to hurt each other physically. Vengeance can bring justice to someone, but as well bring pain to the other. Revenge is a horrible emotion which can lead someone to do horrible things. Two companions, Montresor and Fortunato, destinies are controlled by one thing only, vengeance and murder. In the story, the narrator seeks revenge on Fortunato because he mortally insulted him. Montresor succeeds in luring Fortunato to his death without raising any suspicion. A horrible revenge made significantly more awful by the way that the retribution is being taken when no genuine offense had been given. In the short tale, “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar A. Poe, the major conflict of revenge is between Montresor and Fortunato, but it is interesting because Montresor is the only one who is aware of the conflict. The author uses the conflict to build suspense and to change the mood of the reader.

Poe uses foreshadowing as a technique to emphasise the theme of revenge he has created the story around. The story has shown to have foreshadowing throughout to help the reader understand what the character Montresor has planned for Fortunato. In the story, Poe uses the detail of Montresor carrying a trowel in his pocket. A trowel is a flat blade used to spread things, or in this case spread the mortar on the bricks to enclose Fortunato. By showing that Montresor is keeping the trowel close to him shows that he is prepared to finally get his revenge on Fortunato, and put his nerves to ease. The second detail Poe uses is Montresor’s family motto. Montresor in the story mentions his family motto which is. “ Nemo me impune lacessit”. Which means, “ No one attacks me with impunity”. The family motto is used in this story to show that Montresor will not stand for anybody who punishes him in any shape or form. Somehow Fortunato has done something to wrong Montresor, and by sticking with his family motto. It is foreshadowing the idea that Montresor will do something to get his revenge. When Montresor finally has Fortunato intoxicated, Montresor decides to finally make his move. Montresor decides to lure Fortunato down into the Catacombs by using his one weakness, wine. By stating there is a wine that Montresor bought and he would Fortunato to test it leads us to believe it is a trap. Montresor then goes on and says that the wine is the catacombs. The word catacombs has a negative connotation with leads us to believe this is foreshadowing the event where Montresor makes his move to get his revenge. Foreshadowing was just one of the few ways Poe used

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).

“The gait of my friend was unsteady, and the bells upon his cap jingled as he strode” (2). In the story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe there are two quite interesting and unusual main characters. Their names are Montresor and Fortunato. One night Montresor finds Fortunato at a carnival. He is very drunk. Fortunato has insulted Montresor many times in his life. Montresor wants to get back at him for insulting him so many times. He lures Fortunato into the catacombs under his palazzo. Montresor chains Fortunato inside an interior recess and traps him behind a wall. Fortunato makes himself an easy target because he’s foolish, intoxicated, and determined.

The rest of the story takes place in the catacomb. In the basement of the catacomb is a graveyard. The passageway is claustrophobic, dripping with nitre from its proximity to a water source, and always leads downward. Fortunato doesn't know this, but he is descending a stairway to Hell rather than to sample a rare wine. They walk through the graveyard in the middle of the night. Not to forget that they are drunk and are getting more drunk. The room gets smaller and smaller and the cold keeps on increasing. It is gloomy and they only have 2 torches. This is a setting that has all the elements, a perfect gothic story would have. Next lets look at the atmosphere. In the story the purpose of Montresor is very clear and Fortunato is completely unaware of it. This creates an atmosphere of suspense, mystery and horror. It is dark, oppressiveness, and full of strange sounds. Another element that Poe uses in his stories is the Psychology of the people. Montresor's motive for murder is vague. He refers to thousand injuries but never gives a specific reason for doing so. It can be concluded that Montresor is insane but even this is questionable because of intricate details of the plot. In this story the intentions of Montresor hurting Fortunato is very clear. Though this is not directly implied in the story but with every passing minute it becomes even more clear. But what will be Fortunato's punishment is still not clear. And that makes the plot