The Definition Of Evil In General Zaroff And Montresor

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

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

Since we do not have suffice information on how Fortunato insulted him, Montresor may be exaggerating on a few parts and wants to be the hero of his own story. This may have led to the reason why Montresor tells his story years later; Guilt built up because the way he was supposed to kill Fortunato did not end up the way he wanted. He is not satisfied because Fortunato did not suffer when he was supposed to be plastered up without food or water in the catacombs for days before his death, yet he died quicker than Montresor expected (par. 89). When a person seeks revenge, they want to savor every part of it and see the person suffer, but not die…quick. Apart from Fortunato not suffering, Montresor was backing up from his own plan to get his revenge. Montresor was slowed down every time he would ask Fortunato if he wanted to go back. Occasionally, Montresor would command Fortunato, “Come, we will go back; your health is precious (par. 35).” According to his own words, Montresor hesitated whether he wanted to go through with his revenge, and that was against one of the three features that he considered essential for it to be a

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

Montresor is trying to lure Fortunato to his vaults by telling him that Luchresi can just come and taste the Amontillado because he knows best. He knows Fortunato will freak out by this statement, and then show Montresor that he is wrong in saying that. Indeed, this leads Fortunato down into the catacombs, just so he can prove Montresor wrong. That 's when Montresor will take his final step in his plan to end Fortunato. This event leads to the most suspenseful part in the short story. The reader doesn’t know what Montresor’s next step is going to be in his plan, along with what stupid move is Fortunato going to take to leading himself closer to his death.

How does one characterize good and evil? Throughout time, people have asked this question and only received opinions based on references from

In my opinion, Montresor is a very clever man. He not only seek revenge, but he also was able to get this man boozed up and murder him. Montresor continuously asked Fortunato if he wanted to have a glass of wine and his reply was always “yes.” He was an intelligent man and knew how to get Fortunato to say yes. “At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the

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

It is indicated that in the past that Fortunato has hurt Montresor many times, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” However, there were never any insults or unkind acts actually mentioned in the story. It is exactly the opposite. Fortunato was friendly and helpful towards Montresor. From the very beginning of the story, one can obviously see that Montresor thinks that Fortunato has wronged him. “He had a weak point-this Fortunato-although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared.” This line shows that Montresor’s plan was well thought out. There is not any indication of what Fortunato thinks about Montresor. It can only be assumed that he trusts him do to the fact that he follows Montresor into the catacombs. It is up until the last moment, before the last brick is laid, that Fortunato believes this is all a joke. “Ha! Ha! Ha! – He! He! He! – a very good joke, indeed-an excellent jest.” Montresor is successful in his plan for vengeance. He succeeds in having Fortunato follow him into the catacombs and with great ease, had him up against the wall and shackled. Then tier-by-tier, Montresor constructed Fortunato’s tomb of bricks around him. When Montresor called out to him, he heard nothing and thus his plan was a success. “In pace requiescat!”

<br>The way the narrator treats his enemy is one of the clearest examples for ironic elements. When the characters meet, Montresor realises that Fortunato is afflicted with a severe cold, nevertheless he makes a point of him looking "remarkably well". Montresor acts in the most natural and friendly way towards the man object of his revenge, and even praises his "friend's" knowledge in the subject of wines. Also upon their meeting, Montresor begins a psychological manipulation of Fortunato. He claims that he needs his knowledge to ascertain that the wine he has purchased is indeed Amontillado. Furthermore, he acknowledges that Fortunato is engaged in another business (i.e.: the celebration of carnival), so he would go to Luchresi, who, one is made to believe, is a competitor of Fortunato's. To these words, Fortunato is forced by his pride to accompany Montresor to the vaults (where the Amontillado is kept), dissipate his doubts and also to prove his higher status than Luchresi as a connoisseur of wine. In fact, during their way down under in the catacombs, the twisted mind of Montresor, dares to give Fortunato the chance to go back, due to the almost unbearable dampness and foulness rampant in the vaults and Fortunato's state of health. The narrator clearly knows about the stubborn nature of Fortunato, and is

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.

Throughout the short story, Montresor appears to be murderous and mentally insane. As Montresor continues to tell his story, the reader learns that Montresor is not only a murder and insane, but he is a narcissist as well. Montresor displays the characteristics for this to be true. When Montresor decided to take revenge on Fortunato, he was persistent in doing it himself for his own satisfaction. As his plan began to go along perfectly, he was very pleased with himself. In addition, the cause for Montresor’s revenge plan was because of an insult. The death of Fortunato was not justifiable by his actions. It was merely a prize for Montresor

Montresor has held this grudge against his friend who according to him had given him “thousands of injuries.” This grudge he has makes him vindictive as he seeks revenge against Fortunato for his insult against him. His family’s motto is “Nemo me impune lacessit" meaning “No one attacks me with impunity”. The motto implies that the entire Montresor family history is filled with acts of revenge. Montresor becomes obsessed with his vengeance and when he has Fortunato chained to the wall he mocks at his cries and moaning, “I replied to the yells of him who clamored. I re-echoed, I aided, I surpassed them in volume and in strength.” Montrosor never mentions what the insulting act was which can tell us that the actual act wasn’t as important as him just getting some sort of revenge.

His plan to seek revenge on his friend is very carefully thought out and excellently executed. As Montresor’s sinister plan begins to take shape, he studies Fortunato and finds out his weaknesses and what would lure him in. Montresor was aware of Fortunato’s love of wine and knew that he would be intrigued by a rare fine wine. He also knew that Fortunato thought of himself as an expert in fine wines. Montresor used Fortunato’s pride against him. With this kind of knowledge, Montresor had Fortunato in the palm of his hand. Montresor was also fortunate enough to have his own collection of wines below his house. It takes an extraordinarily smart person to be able to create and follow through with this plan. He had even made sure that his servants were gone so that there would be no witnesses of the crime. It was stated in Lorcher’s article that “Montresor is a master of reverse psychology” (Lorcher). Montresor asks Fortunato several times if he wants to turn around because he seems to be ill with a pestering cough. By doing this, Montresor causes Fortunato to deny being sick by not wanting to appear weak. This shows how intelligent Montresor is by using reverse psychology to keep Fortunato in the palm of his hand. When the two reached the wine cellar, Montresor made sure Fortunato drank several bottles of wine along the way so that his brain would not be working in its normal

It is easy to question the Montresor’s sanity early in the story as the character smiles at the thought of the Fortunato’s immolation. He has joyful bliss with ideas and thoughts of Fortunato’s demise. In his mind, he is truly mistreated by the Fortunato and the act of slow execution offers a satisfaction too fulfil his desire of vengeance. The character has no moral conflict, he feels he was correcting a wrongful event that occurred in his life. Though a wine cellar would be cool and dark catacomb like, I don’t think there is any appropriate time that is normal to be that comfortable surrounded in human remains. The Fortunato had no reason to suspect the ill will of things to come, in actuality he did nothing wrong. The eeriness of the catacomb setting in hindsight should have alarmed the Fortunato.