The Cask Of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe

“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 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

Edgar Allen Poe 's, "The Cask Of Amontillado," is a between two enemies. It humorously portrays the foil of Fortunato, as he is led through the catacombs. Poe 's humor is dark, sarcastic and very ironic, which quickly becomes a signpost of the tale. Poe sets himself apart from other authors in his works, based on how he depicts and encounters death. It accentuates the notion that at times, your worst enemy will appear as your best friend. Pride is the downfall of every man and the same can be said for Fortunato.

Religion is the main focus point of the land and to obey the laws it sets forth is the highest calling anyone can hope to achieve. During Carnival that too is inverted making religion ignored. Many unreligious acts happen at Carnival in the traditional merrymaking including the law that prevents the killing of another person. This would give Montresor the ability to kill Fortunato without the guilt of betraying his faith. Montresor was, up until Carnival, the oppressed victim of Fortunato. During Carnival, however, that prospect is inverted making Montresor the oppressor of Fortunato. Fortunato’s name means he is fortunate “someone who becomes rich and prominent by chance (Fortune), rather than through personal virtue” (Baraban 52). During Carnival, however, Fortunato loses his luck and becomes unfortunate. Poe further foreshadows Fortunato’s fate by describing the costumes that they wore to Carnival. Costumes are a tradition to Carnival’s inversion on reality. The participants would dress up as someone opposite of what they are. In Fortunato’s case he was dressed with tightly fitted striped dress with a conical cap with bells attached which resembles the outfit of a jester or fool. Fortunato’s costume as a fool is symbolic because he would later be a fool to follow his enemy Montresor to his own demise. Montresor also had a costume that foreshadowed the fate of his victim. Montresor wore a mask made of black

In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allen Poe skillfully integrates dramatic irony and portrays Fortunato’s ignorance as a way to engage the reader. He utilizes the power of human emotions and compassion to capture the audience’s attention. In the story, Montresor uses reverse psychology to coax Fortunato deeper into the catacombs and towards his own death. An example of dramatic irony occurs when Montresor says, “‘Come, (...) we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as I once 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 Luchresi-’” (Poe 868). Only the reader and Montresor know of his plan to end Fortunato’s life. Through Fortunato’s point of view, it would seem that Montresor is trustworthy and worried about his health. However, Montresor could care less about Fortunato’s well being and is using this mask to hide his true intentions to complete his master scheme. At the end of this quote, Montresor sneakily mentions getting help from Fortunato’s rival Luchresi instead, knowing that Fortunato is extremely egotistic and greedy. Fortunato is the kind of man who thinks he is the finest and most sought after wine connoisseur in the area. He believes that Luchresi should not be trusted in the wine tasting business, especially with something as precious as Amontillado. This undesirable quality leads Fortunato to his death while the reader could do nothing to help. Unlike Fortunato, the reader can see Montresor’s tactics and can’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the victim. This emotional attachment intrigues the reader since they want to find out the result of the story and Fortunato’s fate. After taking another drink of Medoc, Fortunato performed a movement that symbolizes the Mason Brotherhood. Montresor did not understand what he meant by this unpredictable action. Fortunato got a little suspicious and said “‘A sign, (...) a sign.’ ‘It is this,’ I answered producing from beneath the fold of my roquelaire, a trowel. ‘You jest,’ he exclaimed, recoiling a few paces. ‘But let us proceed to the Amontillado’” (868). At this point in the story, the audience knows

The story initially starts off telling us the situation where Fortunato had wounded Montresor a “thousand” times. One day, Fortunato goes too far and insults Montresor ultimately resulting in Montresor vowing revenge. Montresor has to craft a perfect plan, for if Fortunato is able to revenge him in return then Montresor’s efforts will have been in vain.

A type of dramatic irony in the story can be seen in Fortunato’s attire at the carnival. Fortunato was dressed as a jester, though it was actually Montresor who was laughed at and ridiculed. Professor Charles N. Nevi, of the department of English in Medford, Oregon, writes about the irony in Fortunato’s dress when he says, “Fotunato’s dress is ironic, for a jester is not just a man to be laughed at; he is a man who makes others laugh by being aware of the frailties of mankind and then ridiculing them, but Fortunato is aware of very little and who ridicules nothing. It is Montresor who came closer to the role of jester,” (Nevi par.8). Here Professor Nevi suggests that Montresor is the one who is actually ridiculed and should be a better fit in the jester dress. These examples demonstrate Fortunato’s ironic misfortunes that lead to his eventual death.

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.

Throughout American literature, stories contain themes that can be similar or different. The themes are as diverse as the stories themselves. Three stories will be discussed in this paper -- first, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado tells a dark tale of revenge. Next, in Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, it is shown that a tradition can be dangerous when followed blindly. Finally, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown deals with the loss of innocence and faith.

There is a saying that “revenge is a dish best served cold”. That could not be truer in a story from Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe is a famous writer from the 19th Century. It is said that the name Poe should bring “images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead” ("Poe 's Life"). He is mostly known as the inventor of science fiction and modern detective stories. Most of Poe’s tale are terror story’s with haunting lyric poetry. Poe had the best mysterious characters that captured the public imagination. It would only make sense that he had a mysterious story about revenge. Edgar Allan Poe uses irony to develop the characteristics of a man who seeks revenge in the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado”.

Revenge drives the action in “The Cask of Amontillado.” In Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Cask of Amontillado”, one character’s betrayal sets forth vengeful events, which occurs below ground in a catacomb. The narrator Montresor leads Fortunato, his “friend”, to his doom. Behind all this revenge and death, trust is a big theme of it. Without trust, there is no feeling of betrayal. This particular story has much to do with the lengths a human will go to achieve what they desire when they seek mortal revenge. In the following, I will examine the different aspects of what the purpose of revenge is in Poe’s tale.

In “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allen Poe, one finds the horror throughout its pages. The ideas of unexplained revenge and images of scenes only getting darker and colder cause one to have feelings of dread and disbelief. The protagonist, Montresor, has waited fifty years to tell his story, and one has to question the reliability of what he is saying. Questions of true justice and the power of an insult arise, only magnifying those ideas of horror. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” one sees a man trying to justify unjust revenge, with irony and visual imagery used to emphasize the horror of a murder.

“The Cask of Amontillado” was written in 1846, by Edgar Allan Poe. Born in 1809, Poe never knew any of his parents. At the age of three, his mother died of tuberculosis, and his father deserted the family before he was born. Taking care of him was his foster parents in Richmond, Virginia. They loved Poe, but were not supportive of his decisions and kept Poe poor. Having debt and not being able to provide food and clothes for himself caused Poe to quit school. Later, he worked as a magazine editor and soon became a literary critic. Come 1836, Poe married his sick cousin. During this time, many of his successful literature were developed. However, Poe was never able to remain financially stable. In 1847, Poe’s wife died. Not even two years after her death, Poe was found half-dead on a Baltimore street. At the age of forty, Poe had died. It is still unknown the cause of his death.

In the short story, "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe, the reader finds out the series of events that leads to a man named Fortunado's death. The narrator and protagonist of the story is a man named Montresor, who had previously been insulted by Fortunado.

Another use of irony and foreshadowing is that the death was planned during a carnival. A carnival is usually a time of celebration, in this case it was the carnival before Lent, allowing themselves to indulge in pagan activities before the self-denying 40 days celebrated by certain religions. It is ironic that this a religious filled activity filled with drunks who have no perception of reality or self-awareness. At the time Fortunato ran into Montresor, Fortunato was involved with the excess of alcohol which made him become easily fooled and unaware of the reality of his situation exposing himself to Montresor almost effortlessly. When they are met Montresor is masked, he seems to be doing in what is in the best interest for Fortunato, wanting to show him the fine wine, disguising his real intentions under the mask, and Fortunato, of course, was dressed as a jester. The irony stands in that Fortunato is more willing to follow Montresor once he removes his mask, once he shows his face and is smiling and leading him down the catacombs. This is the irony that Montresor is a “two-faced” character. Behind the mask and his words, he hides his true intentions of revenge and yet when he takes the mask off he is still deceiving Fortunato, even though one would think that once one is unmasked their true self reveals. Fortunato on the other hand is portraying himself as a fool in the outfit he is wearing already. It is