The Cask Of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe

What can a character that lived in 1700s Italy have in common with a teenager in the 1960s? Though it may seem impossible Edgar Allan Poe’s character Montresor in The Cask of Amontillado shares similar characteristics to John Updike’s A&P teenage Sammy. Both of these characters share sarcastic tendencies and a need to make a name of himself. Though, each man differs in the way he goes about making that name. While Montresor decides murder is the way, Sammy quits his job to be noticed.

“We should guard ourselves against pride because pride leads to downfall.” This quote, by Sam Veda, perfectly sums up the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allan Poe. The two main characters, Montresor and Fortunato, are burdened with the great curse of pride. Pride leads the way for both characters, to a personal downfall. The pride of Montresor led him to seek revenge upon Fortunato, who’s pride allowed him to agreeably walk into his own death trap. In this short story, Edgar Allan Poe illustrates that with pride the outcome will always be downfall of great measure .

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the short stories "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe and "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Specifically it will discuss the phenomenon of evil in the human heart as it appears in these two works. Evil lives in everyone, whether they want to acknowledge it or not. These two chilling tales show two different sides of evil, but they both illustrate how evil can corrupt a person right down to their very heart and soul.

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

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.

Is killing someone justifiable? In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Cask of Amontillado that question is one that could be asked. The short story is about a man named Montresor and his quest to get revenge on his foe Fourtando who has apparently insulted Montresor. Around the time of the carnival season Montresor leaves his house to go find Fourtando and get his revenge he tells none of his servants to leave his house, but Montresor knows once that he has left the servants will leave and go to the carnival. Montresor who is dressed in all black finds a intoxicated Fourtando who is a professional wine taster, and then Montresor claims to have some Amontillado wine but he is not sure whether is genuine or if it s a fraud. In order to intimidate Fortunato and to lure him in, Montresor tells him he is going to get Luchresi another wine taster in the area, but Fortunato tells him no thus Montresor plan comes together and then he leads hims to the catacombs and chains Fortunato up where he leaves him to die. In my opinion the first question should be what did Fortunato do that was so bad for Montresor to want to and eventually kill him? Then the next question would be was the killing justifiable? In my opinion the killing was not justifiable. The reason the killing was not justifiable is because of the fact that nobody deserves to die such a brutal death. Another reason why the killing

Once Montresor has Fortunato in his home, he begins to express his dark and deceiving humor. I believe this is a necessity and one of the rules that Montresor must follow in order to feel full retribution. Montresor shows us this ironic behavior when he hands Fortunato a bottle of De Grâve to drink. Another humorous point of the story is

“The Cask of Amontillado” was written by Edgar Allan Poe and was published in 1846. In the short story the narrator, Montresor, executes his friend Fortunato because he feels like he insulted him. For this, he seeks revenge. Fortunato is known to be very knowledgeable about all types of wine. Montresor uses this to his advantage to take him down to his family crypt during the carnival celebration. He tells him that he has a unique wine, and believes it is an Amontillado. After Montresor and Fortunato go deeper and deeper into the crypt, Montresor chains Fortunato and builds a wall around him. At first Fortunato thinks it is a joke, but he soon realizes that he will be dying in the crypt. Montresor goes on to boast about his crime and how he has never been caught. This shows that Montresor is a sinister, mentally insane, and a narcissist.

“The Cask of Amontillado” composed by Edgar Allan Poe is one of the precise examples of Poe’s hypothesis of solidarity of the short story. Poe’s utilization of language helps the reader to understand the conflict between two men, Montresor and Fortunato. In the story, Montresor, cunningly, wants to take revenge from Fortunato. Although the two men are seen in an unexpected way, they both need a similar thing; to fulfill the desire for something that has long past due. Montresor is confessing his crime in front of someone. The story broadens Montresor character but limits Fortunato’s character. The theme of trickiness and revenge, is explained with the utilization of symbolism and irony, Montresor seeks peace

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.

In his writing, Edgar Allan Poe has multiple uses of direct and indirect characterization. In The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor had rules such as “I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong” (Poe, 2). Poe used indirect characterization to show the reader that Montresor is an unreliable narrator because he justified his actions or in this case, murder, to the reader using rules that he created for himself. Poe revealed to us that Fortunato looked at Montresor “…with two filmy orbs that distilled the rheum of intoxication” and “the wine sparkled in his eyes…” (“The Cask of Amontillado “6, 8). It is revealed to the reader that Fortunato was drunk. Fortunato and Montresor are both full of pride. Fortunato “prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine” and Montresor considered himself as “skillful in the Italian vintages” (Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” 3). When Fortunato “ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” 2). Montresor is vengeful and creates rules for killing with impunity. Poe also showed indirect characterization in Hopfrog. The king had known that “Hop-Frog was not fond of wine; for it excited the poor cripple almost to madness, and madness is no comfortable feeling. But the king loved his practical jokes, and took pleasure in forcing Hop-Frog to drink, in

Amontillado is a classically known amber-colored, medium-dry sherry wine, and in the case of Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado, it is the taste for Amontillado that results in the unfortunate and rather untimely death of Fortunato at the hands of the maniacal Montresor. Revenge is something that no one should have to experience; however, sadly sometimes, it is an inevitability that cannot be avoided. The Cask of Amontillado exposes Poe’s dark side and cruelty towards society and the world. In this short story, Poe tells about a rich drunk man, Fortunato, picking on a not-so rich friend, Montresor, but things quickly take a turn when Montresor decides to take out his revenge against his “pal.” Poe uses ethos, logos, and pathos deeply throughout his storyline to enhance the story and better the imagination of the characters, the deep meaning behind the setting, and the Amontillado’s secret.

Everybody has at one point been insulted, or insulted someone. The reaction to this many times is simply an argument, but it can lead to more serious ramifications. In literature, characters may take serious offense to an insult, and consider it a serious obstacle, vowing to retaliate. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor must overcome a hindrance, one that he establishes to be of vital importance. Fortunato, someone of a similar wealthy stature as that of Montresor, acted in a way that could not be tolerated after he insulted Montresor. In reaction to this, Montresor decides to lure Fortunato into his family tomb under the false pretense of Amontillado, a type of wine, chains him to a niche in the deepest recess of the catacombs and buries him while he is still living. Characters in literature overcome obstacles by manipulating their opponents, using logic and by taking advantage of their surroundings.

Montresor knew Fortunato “had a weak point” (226), that “[h]e prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine” (226), and he used this weakness against him. He approaches Fortunato during the carnival and informs him he has “received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado” (227), but adds he has his doubts about its authenticity. He goes on to raise Fortunato above himself, by saying he “was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting [Fortunato] in the matter” (227), ensuring Fortunato will jump at the chance to prove himself the better. To make certain Fortunato comes to his vaults that night - having guaranteed the house would be empty with yet more reverse psychology - he then makes it an urgent matter for Fortunato by igniting his jealousy. He tells Fortunato “as [he is] engaged, [Montresor is] on [his] way to Luchesi” (227). Montresor’s plan works, as Fortunato immediately protests:

Is there anything that someone could do to you that would cause you to commit murder? Could you get away with it? Montresor is the murderous narrator who has committed the perfect murder in just such a tale, “The Cask of Amontillado.” Montresor plots and kills an unwary friend/foe during carnival time for motives that are unclear. The author of this tale, Edgar Allan Poe, influenced by his somewhat tragic life and one of the most influential Gothic writers, uses symbolism and irony to show the multitude of complicated motives of the narrator in his famous horror story.