Edgar Allan Poe had tragic life. This may have led to his dark stories and their realistic details. For example, Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado tells a sinister tale of murder through the eyes of the killer. Poe uses tactics to give the reader a sense of fear throughout the story. In The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allan Poe creates the disturbing mood through the use of dialogue, sensory details, and foreshadowing. In the story Poe creates the disturbing mood through dialogue. The text reads, “’Drink,’ I said, presenting him the wine. ‘I drink,’ he said, ‘to the buried that repose around us.’ ‘And I to your long life.’” (pg. 7) This is ironic because Montresor is about to kill Fortunato, which really is the opposite of drinking to his “long life”. This is disturbing because the reader knows that Montresor is planning to kill Fortunato, but Fortunato is unaware. The author also writes, “’Pass your hand,’ I said, ‘over the wall; you cannot help feeling the niter. Indeed it is very damp. Once more let me implore you to return. No? Then I must positively leave you. But I must first render you all the little attentions in my power.’” This text shows Montresor is nearly begging Fortunato to leave the chamber and go back, …show more content…
The author does this when he wrote, “’It is this,’ I answered, producing a trowel from beneath the folds of my roquelaure.” (pg. 8) This is foreshadowing because it would be odd for Montresor to carry around a trowel for no reason. It shows the tool will be used later in the story, when he is laying the bricks to enclose Fortunato in the wall. The text reads, “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity.” (pg. 4) This is foreshadowing that he is going to hurt Fortunato in some way and do it in a way so that he will not get caught. This adds to the disturbing mood because it shows Montresor must have some sort of experience in getting away with crimes. (Carley
In addition, the place that Montresor chose to kill Fortanato is also sarcastic. It seems abnormal that the “vaults” were situated inside the “catacombs”. When they were looking for the wine, Fortanato did not suspect anything even when he saw the “bones” and “catacombs”. He still kept on asking where the “Amontillado” was. Ridiculously, while they were drinking the wine in order to keep themselves warm, Fortanato said that he drank to “the buried that repose around them”. Whereas, Montresor said that he drank “to your long life”. Surely, what Montresor said is ironic; He certainly knew that Fortanato would not have a “long life” since he would kill him soon. Perhaps, what Montresor means here is that Fortanato may
Furthermore, Montresor is very prepared or tactical. He plans to get Fortunato drunk; it works. In the falling action of “The Cask of Amontillado”, Fortunato’s drunken state wears off, but comes to see that it isn’t in his favor. “I had scarcely
The story “ The Cask of Amontillado” provides various amounts of moods as they walk through the catacomb. In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, the main character known as Montresor, goes through creepy situations and events with the intoxicated, Fortunato. As this story goes on talking about them walking through the catacomb, there’s at most four moods created throughout the story. Those consists of eerie, suspenseful, scary, and dramatic. These moods are to be spoken about when Montresor does something awful to his acquaintant, Fortunato.
Montresor plots and thinks about his anger throughout the whole book. He makes a whole plan to kill Fortunato and not get caught. Montresor quotes “The thousand injuries I had borne” (Edgar Allan Poe)pg 61 proving Montresor had been insulted and is now angry. Fortunato had insulted Montresor and now Montresor is furious. Montresor is so furious that he has planned the perfect crime to
“I need to get out of this. I should’ve listened to Montresor when he was asking if I wanted to go back,” said Fortunato to himself after he was done screaming his lungs out of his body. “ I need to go back and be with my family and the people of the town. My life can’t be over right now. The person I thought was my friend is the one that put me in my own grave.” Montresor was seeking revenge because of how much pain Fortunato has caused him in the past. In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado”, the main theme that Edgar Allan Poe tells us is how curiosity can damage people in the future by using irony and foreshadowing.
Fortunato is pleased when Montresor remembers his motto “ no one injures me without exemption from punishment” (Line 105). That is just another reason for Fortunato to believe everything is okay between him and Montresor.
Eventually, Montresor chains Fortunato up and buries him alive. He tries to prove that revenge is not worth it unless it is done right. This is what drives him to commit the horrible murder of Fortunato. In this story, Montresor’s villainy enhances the meaning of revenge. Montresor’s villainy shows revenge because he is trying to get back at someone that he dislikes.
Could you keep a gruesome and murderous secret to yourself for 50 years? A good horror story should contain suspense and fear but also should include a well-produced plot, setting, and should include literary devices. Well, the author is able to successfully accomplish this in the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe. Due to its dark, eerie and crowded setting like the catacombs, the riveting plot that makes the story suspenseful, and the intriguing point of view that helps the reader understand what Montresor is feeling make this story clearly a prime example of a quality horror story.
We soon see foreshadowing of Fortunato's impending doom when the issue of Montresor's shield of arms is brought into the conversation as "A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.". Even more appropriate is Montresor's family motto, translated as, "No one wounds me with impunity". Such a visual depiction and mental conviction due to family honor and history creates all the more impetus in Montresor to carry out the punishment that Fortunato deserves for wronging him, and more likely the family honor. When Montresor finally captures Fortunato in the catacombs, the climax of his precisely calculated deed, he revels in the sound of Fortunato's chains rattling, and "that I might hearken to it with the more satisfaction, I ceased my labors and sat down upon the bones". However, his satisfaction soon turns to apprehension when suddenly "a succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back". He hesitates at this moment, when his revenge is sweetest, when he should bask in the suffering of his "enemy", and finds himself contemplating the shrill screams of his captive! He does eventually compose
All of these descriptions that Poe creates through conversation between the characters and the details we are pulled along through the story, much as Fortunado is pulled along through the catacombs, where we all see his demise. Montresor eventually chains Fortunado to the wall and build up the cask that he will forever be in, alluding to the talk of the mason background of Montresor’s family. At the end Montresor thinks to himself, “my heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so,” (Poe
Poe presents his thoughts using horrific deeds to try and make the reader visualize how Montresor derives pleasure from hearing Fortunato being tortured. In the first paragraph of Cask Of Amontillado, Montresor states that he had become fed up with Fortunato's insults, and had decided it was time for revenge. Montresor and Fortunato are known to be ‘friends’ because of them both having a high status but Montresor has a big hatred for Fortunato, which Fortunato is not aware of. Montresor is bent on getting revenge on Fortunato only because of his wealth and popularity that they share together. He wants it all for himself and when he cannot get it he says, “It must be understood, that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good-will. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was the thought of his immolation.” (page 372, paragraph 1) This quote shows that the thoughts that Montresor has about Fortunato are clues to picking apart bits and pieces to make the conclusion that Montresor is jealous of Fortunato and all his success. Montresor’s jealousy shows unlike behavior towards his normal actions. Montresor is so outside of his ownself that he tricks Fortunato into getting intoxicated so that he can chain him up and torture him. As Fortunato had started becoming more aware he started to moan and cry for help. Montresor has a derived pleasure of hearing this poor man being tortured and he finds it satisfying for himself to listen to. He uses a twisted and eerie atmosphere (the catacombs) to add a disruptive and creepy feeling to the reader. As Montresor enjoys the
Another prominent theme we see is the contrast between life and death. We are shown this as Poe sets the opening scene by writing that “It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season” (762). Here you are shown a very lively event where all the townspeople celebrate and come together. It is a joyous celebration full of life and happiness. Later on in the story, Montresor brings Fortunato to his family wine cellar and catacomb where they’re left completely alone, away from all life. One part of the cellar is described as
If a friend had demolished a part of someone, would that someone be able to go to the extent of taking the others life? In Edgar Allan Poe’s story “Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor is aiming to get revenge on another man named Fortunato. It is unknown what Fortunato did to Montresor, however we know it was a great insult. Montresor had made the perfect plan in order to take the life of his Fortunato. Montresor purposely bumped into the intoxicated man, Fortunato, and he begins to persuade Fortunato to come down into his catacomb to taste a wine for him. As he expected, Fortunato followed his way into the catacomb, which later caused Montresor trapping Fortunato and soon letting him die. Through his use of carefully constructed setting, symbolism, and verbal irony, Poe creates a mood that is both chilling and horrifying in “The Cask of Amontillado.”
After Fortunato performs a hand symbol which apparently marks him as a mason, Montresor remarks that he is as well, jokingly pulling out a trowel, which is to be the primary tool of his enemy’s destruction. Fortunato himself, when Montresor is drinking to his health, says that he drinks to the “to the buried that repose around [them]” (Poe), whom he is about to join in burial and then death. The meaning of Montresor’s motto and crest, which Fortunato forgot, also stand as a warning: “Nemo me impune lacessit” states that none will harm him without retribution, and the arms, a foot crushing a serpent which is biting it, implies as much. Whether these are coincidentally so fitting to the story, were simply a strong influence on Montresor’s character, or may have been fabricated by Montresor, taking advantage of Fortunato’s ignorance to relish in his forthcoming defeat right before him, is not
Montresor’s actions lend to his vengeful and manipulative nature. He lures Fortunato into the catacombs of his home to carry out his plans to kill Fortunato. In the first step of his plan, he boosts Fortunato’s ego by saying that Luchesi was almost as worthy a judge of wine as he. Then Montresor tricks Fortunato into believing that there is an