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Theme Of Revenge In The Cask Of Amontillado

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The short story “The Cask of Amontillado”, written by Edgar Allan Poe, is about a man trying to get revenge on another man. In the story Montresor is the protagonist in this story and is the one that wants revenge on Fortunato. In this story Montresor tricks Fortunato into going into his families catacombs to kill him. Fortunato is a wine connoisseur so Montresor uses that against him by telling him he has an expensive cask of wine, called Amontillado. Throughout the story Montresor displays that revenge is a must in his eyes. In the short story “Cask of Amontillado”, Edgar Allen Poe portrays Montresor as a villain-antihero protagonist in order to complete the theme some people must have revenge. Montresor uses his wit to set up his revenge plan. Montresor finds something that Fortunato really is interested in to lure him in. Montresor knows that Fortunato is a wine connoisseur and is very proud of it. He tells Fortunato that he has some Amontillado that he wants to know if it’s authentic or not. Amontillado being a very good and expensive wine, this sparks interest in Fortunato. Planning this deed out and putting this much thought into scheme show determination, and proves that he would do anything for revenge. The second way he uses his intelligence is when he keeps getting Fortunato more and more drunk, and what he says to him while they go into the catacombs. As he leads Fortunato into the catacombs he encourages him to continue drinking, and keeps telling him that it’s too dangerous for him to be in there, as this would spark interest in Fortunato. In the story Montresor said this to Fortunato as a use of reverse phycology, “Come,” I said, with decision, “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” “Enough,” he said; “the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.”(117-118). This use of intelligence to make Fortunato more unaware and the use of reverse phycology helped Montresor accomplish revenge. Montresor is very sneaky when it came to his revenge plan.

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