Many times, the word pride has a negative connotation attached to it. The reason being, is that too much pride skews the perception of reality. This concept is underlined in Edgar Allen Poe’s story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” through the character Fortunato. Montresor allows Fortunato opportunities to escape from his deceitful plan, but Fortunato’s pride gets in the way. Although the emphasis in “The Cask of Amontillado” seems to be focused around Montresor’s revengeful murder of Fortunato, a closer look at the tone, structure, and setting of the story, reveals that Fortunato’s pride and unhealthy lifestyle is what ultimately leads to his demise. Through this we begin to understand that too much pride in one’s life blinds him or her from reality. Throughout the entire story Poe develops a sardonic tone through the contrast of what Fortunato thinks his happening against the reality of the situation. One of the first incidents in which we see this is when Montresor says, “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking today! But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts” (Poe 194). The readers can clearly notice Montresor’s sarcasm and the irony of the situation. This is because, as the readers, we are predisposed to how Montresor feels about Fortunato. Montresor has already started to develop his plan this early in the story by building up Fortunato’s pride with his greetings and comments. Fortunato his too
Pride can be describe as a very common thing that one individual has encountered once in their lifetime. Pride can be both positive and negative in one’s perspective. In the stories,“The Odyssey” by Homer and translated by Robert Fitzgerald, “The Necklace,” by Guy De Maupassant, and “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allan Poe, the protagonist and several characters exhibit pride. Pride can convey negative effects in one’s life if one individual exaggerates or abuses pride.
Feuds and arguments between individuals who may disagree with or dislike one another are a common occurrence in everyday life, often varying in degrees of intensity, but rarely reaching a point of extremity. However, in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado”, This threshold of extremity is reached by the narrator of the story, Montresor, who explains that his acquaintance, Fortunato, has repeatedly and irreparably insulted him over the course of years, and uses it as justification to take justice into his own hands and seek retribution through murder, despite there being no proof of Fortunato's guilt other than Montresor’s claims. His motive for murdering Fortunato can be attributed to his state of mind, as Montresor’s lack of guilt, empathy, or remorse highlights him as a character with psychopathic tendencies. As the story progresses, Montresor’s cold and calculating nature leaves the audience full of dread and suspense while he lures the oblivious Fortunato towards his inevitable demise. The employment of rhetorical devices such as irony, theme, and structure builds the suspense for the ultimate climax of Poe’s gothic masterpiece.
<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
Literature makes good use of the theme of vengeance. Vengeance is often used to depict complex stories in which a character will attempt to retaliate by causing harm or humiliation to those who have inflicted harm to them. So is the case in short horror story The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, which is built around the main character Montresor plotting and achieving vengeance against Fortunato, who apparently made the mistake of humiliating Montresor in the past. In the story The Cask of Amontillado, the elements of characterization, exposition, and setting show how vengeance is developed through the story.
The Cask of Amontillado is considered to be one of the best short stories. Written by Edgar Allan Poe in first person and having all the main events as a three hundred page fiction book, The Cask of Amontillado is a complete novel. This short story has several themes which function from the first page of the story such as: suspense, fear, and revenge.
Edgar Allen Poe tells his macabre story “The Cask of Amontillado” through the eyes of a man so obsessed with family pride that he turns his back on acceptable society and gets swept away by his thoughts of revenge and murder. The reader watches as Montresor leads his victim, Fortunato, deeper into the catacombs of his family home to exact his murderous vengeance. However, it is not madness that led Montresor, a noble aristocrat, to murder, nor is it passionate love or hate. It is pride that led to Montresor’s murder of Fortunato, but not just Montresor’s pride in his family. A combination of Fortunato’s foolish self-pride and Montresor’s deadly pride in his family lead to Fortunato’s untimely death. The central theme of Poe’s story is deadly pride, as represented through Fortunato’s actions, Montresor’s actions, and how, eventually, it leads to their downfall.
Along with foreshadowing Poe also uses verbal irony, to portray how revenge has made Montresor go crazy. While Montresor and Fortunato walk into the cave Fortunato starts coughing: “,We will go back; your health is precious” (214). Montresor’s intentions are to kill Fortunato so clearly Fortunato’s health really means nothing to him. When Montresor says “your health is precious” he really meant the complete opposite, he doesn’t care whatsoever. Montresor is pretending to be comforting to Fortunato, when just shortly will be killing him. The fact that he is pretending to be all kind, when he is about to
The deadly sin of pride has been a plague on humanity for generations. It is the poison that brings out people’s innate sense of superiority from within them. Writers often reflect this part of human nature in their works. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado,” (1846) Fortunato tries to prove his ability to judge wine which directly leads to his death, while in Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby,” (1892) Armand Aubigny’s total disregard for his wife and son leads to their death and a shocking revelation about himself. While society often encourages confidence, an overabundance of confidence can lead to hubris. By using tragic flaw, irony, and characterization, Poe and Chopin show that pride can lead to one’s downfall.
An important element in any story is setting. Authors use setting to convey certain feelings brought on by the character’s surroundings. It also subliminally serves to illustrate the character’s intentions. In “The Cask of Amontillado” Edgar Allen Poe uses the dark, imposing setting to do just that, communicate the underlying theme of the story, being death, revenge and deception.
Edgar Allen Poe tells his macabre story “The Cask of Amontillado” through the eyes of a man so obsessed with family pride that he turns his back on acceptable society and allows himself to be swept away with his thoughts of revenge and murder. The reader watches as Montresor leads his victim, Fortunato, deeper into the catacombs of his family home to exact his murderous vengeance. However, it is not madness that led Montresor, a noble aristocrat, to murder, nor is it passionate love or hate. It is pride that led to Montresor’s murder of Fortunato, but not just Montresor’s pride in his family. A combination of Fortunato’s foolish self-pride and Montresor’s deadly pride in his family that lead to Fortunato’s untimely death. The central theme of Poe’s story is deadly pride, as represented through Fortunato’s actions, Montresor’s actions, and how, eventually, it is their pride that leads to their downfall.
This is ironic because it plays back to Fortunato poking fun at Montresor and embarrassing him and then Montresor getting revenge by luring Fortunato in with a lie and killing him. I thought that the way Poe used foreshadowing and ironic elements progressed the story because it kept me intrigued as to what would happen
In The Cask Of Amontillado, author Edgar Allen Poes use of the words “I” and “Fortunado” are to be read symbolically. The “I” character, who doubles the part as the narrator, takes on a persona of psychotic, revenge filled thoughts.
When considering the character of Montresor of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” people often end the story either feeling disturbed, satisfied, or both. For those in favor of satisfaction we can derive that they understand the justification on Montresor’s side of it. At times, pride is to be considered a form of dignity (Neu 55). A sense of dignity indeed, for it was that dignity that prompted such a strong desire to sin. “The nature of my soul,” is what Montresor tells us whilst vowing silent vengeance over an insult; a thought befitting a person aware of their own pride (Poe 174). Our protagonist feels no remorse since he believes he is in the right. Professor Jerome Neu of the
How far would you go to make your adversary pay for what he or she has done to you? In the novel, it is already pointing out the disagreement between the two main characters in the first few lines. The disagreement includes the antagonist (Fortunado) being very physical towards the protagonist (Amontillado) but when the antagonist ventures into insult, the protagonist becomes imprudent and jumps right into what type of revenge he will do to make him pay. Is the protagonist within reason or just plain delirious?
While pride possesses the potential to be beneficial, it additionally demonstrates through much humility its ability to be detrimental. Pride can cause unfortunate consequences when the amount of pride a person has becomes excessive. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story,“The Cask of Amontillado”, Poe provides an account of his fictional character Montresor who is a clever and vengeful man and seeks lethal retribution against his acquaintance Fortunato for causing him many injuries. On the other hand, author E. M. Forster relates the story of a fictional young boy, the protagonist of Forster’s novella “The Celestial Omnibus”, who attempts to share his newfound awareness of literature with Mr. Bons, someone the boy holds high in respect with regard to wisdom and knowledge. This awareness soon proves to be incomprehensible to Mr.Bons and precipitates his fall from Heaven. Inevitably, Mr. Bons’s and Fortunato’s pride leads to their downfall. “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Celestial Omnibus” by E. M. Forster both utilize characterization, irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing to convey the notion that excessive pride in knowledge causes fatal mistakes.