Who Is Responsible For Fortunato's Death

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

In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor is guilty of the cold-blooded murder of Fortunato and should go to jail for his crime. Montresor speaks of the “thousand injuries” Fortunato caused him and, more recently, the “insult” that Montresor cannot forgive. Vowing to seek retribution, Montresor comments on the importance of ensuring his own innocence throughout the process of revenge. He goes out of his way to be friendly to Fortunato. Other evidence that supports the crime as being preconceived includes Montresor preying on Fortunato’s weakness, his love of wine and his conceited nature. He praises Fortunato on his knowledge of wine and taunts him with the full barrel that he just purchased asking him for his expert opinion. In preparation

Some people believe that Fortunato should have seen Montresor’s evil plan coming, and that he deserved this fate. At the very beginning of the story, Montresor “The thousand

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

He told himself already how he was going to get back at Fortunato. His concept of revenge went too far. He should have just let the situation stand. They could have simply talked it out. In my opinion Fortunato seemed to be a pretty cool guy although he just made one mistake that set Montresor off. Montresor was never a true friend from the beginning if he can let what Fortunato did to him make him want to kill Fortunato in return. Montresor just seems to be a bit jealous of him, so he reacts in a bad

In the text montresor says”my heart grew sick on account of the dampness of the catacombs”(poe 67). Montresor is saying he feels bad for what he is doing and he feels sick in his heart To where he doesn't want to go through with it. But he thinks to the fact that he has made fun of him. In that case he continued down the catacombs and on with the murder. He thinks he is going to bring justice to himself but he loves the fact that he is taking Fortunato to his death. James F. Cooney says “ He seems to be unaware but the reader is not ,of the gleeful tone of his confession”(Cooney 15 ). At first Montresor acts as though he does not know what he is doing wrong. Suddenly he feels sick and knows he is wrong but thinks to when fortunato mad fun of him and feels no longer

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!”

In “Cask Of Amontillado” Montresor seems to have Fortunato's best interests in mind until his true intentions are revealed through his thoughts, not his actions. This is showing how Montresor is careful in his revenge; Fortunato disrespected Montresor, being the wicked and revengeful person he is must make him pay for his mistake. Therefore, Montresor carefully planned out his attack, he had every detail carefully outlined in his head. He made no mistakes; while Fortunato unknowingly made the biggest mistake of his life. Montresor felt satisfied and happy with the horrible crime he committed. While he was burying Fortunato alive, he enjoyed the screams of his foe, relishing in the fact that he won. “...felt

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

One component of  human nature is revenge. In the book “The Cask of Amontillado”, Fortunato insulted Montresor in a way that Montresor wanted him to be hurt like he was hurt. Montresor states “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could”(Poe 3). Montresor was mad at Fortunato for these insults. He later states “At length I would be avenged”(Poe).  Fortunato, however,  wasn’t aware of this plot though. Fortunato, a very prideful man, was tricked into tasting some wine that Montresor said wasn’t what he thought it was.  Fortunato was then dragged down into the catacombs below Montresor’s house to taste the wine, but what Fortunato didn’t know was what Montresor really wanted. He went to a place where there was a door, Fortunato was shackled to the inside and Montresor put bricks to close it up while Fortunato slowly and painfully died of what nobody knows, it could have been dehydration, starvation, it will be forever unknown. Montresor felt that because of what Fortunato did to him, he needed to die. Montresor was driven by revenge to kill Fortunato.

Pride brought out a very dangerous emotion in Montresor, anger. Montresor had suffered "a thousand injuries" or wrong doings from Fortunato, but Montresor was never motivated to speak out against or hurt Fortunato (Poe 221). He was content to tolerate Fortunato's offences silently until he crossed a line. Fortunato "ventured upon insult" or slandered Montresor's name, which Montresor's pride could not let stand (Poe 221). After Montresor heard of Fortunato's slander of his name, he quietly plotted to exact revenge upon Fortunato and take advantage of his two greatest flaws, his excessive drinking and his pride (Poe 222). Montresor made careful plans that ensured he would not raise suspicions, so he would not get caught (Poe 222). Montresor believed that revenge is useless if one gets caught (Poe 222). He allowed pride and anger to cloud his judgment, which caused him to make the dangerous decision to murder Fortunato for an offense that did not

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.

Once Fortuanto was officially dead, Montressor’s revenge had been fulfilled. “For half a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!” Fortunato’s corpse is now amongst other dead family members belonging to Montressor, and although Montressor was the cause of Fortunato’s death, he still says “may he rest in peace.” Montressor didn’t really mean it because if he did feel any remorse towards Fortuanto, he wouldn’t have killed him in the first place. Death is definitely an important theme for this short story.

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.