In fact, Fortunato wears motley with a stripped dress with a conical cap adorned with bells, as if he had to act like a fool, while the murderer wears a gruesome dress made up of a clock and a mournful mask of black silk, which hides his face. From the very beginning, the narrator, who is the fabled nobleman Montresor, clears up the reason for his grudge against the Italian man, ironically called “Fortunato” whom he wants to murder in an atrocious way through a diabolical trick, which punishes with impunity. According to the narrator, it does not make sense to make up for a wrong if the enemy is given the possibility to defend himself. As a consequence, revenge must be infallible, total, perfectly rational and pitiless, without the least chance
Men desire revenge differently than women in the aspect of when a man desires revenge it is to declare his superiority and his masculinity. These ingrained institutionalized thoughts of masculinity are planted in a boy at young age and example could be: don’t let anyone put you down, and if they do hell have no fury. For Montresor what was ingrained in his thoughts was his family motto of “Nemo me impune lacessit (no one provokes me with impunity)”(Poe 110). Thus when a man takes out his revenge what is at stake is who it the top of the masculine tier. Though this isn’t prevalent for every man in our society, in Montresor case it is very strong that he wants to declare his superiority and masculinity over Fortunato. By Montresor leading Fortunato
Fortunato’s jester attire becomes his funeral attire. He is masquerading as a fool, and he is taken for one.
“Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you.” This quote means that people act in such a devious way as the person who hurt them which does not make them any better. In the short story, The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor wants to seek revenge from Fortunato’s iniquity. Montresor feels that he has been insulted by his acquaintance. In Montresor’s mind, retaliating the same way Fortunato did toward him is the right thing to do. He decided to get Fortunato boozed up on wine since he knew that was his fondness. By this time Fortunato is very gullible and will do anything Montresor insist on him doing. Montresor planned out everything in detail what he cinched to do to Fortunato whether it was right or wrong. He just wanted to seek revenge, but conceal every detail so that it is not obvious. Montresor is a sociopathic character who did everything in his mite and power to show that revenge is a successful ending.
Both Characters are wearing a costume that describes who they are in the short story. When they both leave Montresor begins to put “on a mask of black silk and drawing a roquelaire (similar to a black cape) closely about my person.” Montresor wearing this is a symbol of him being a villain. In most stories the villain wears a black mask and on some occasions they wear a black cape. Also Fortunato “had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells,” dressed similarly to a jester. A jester is a fool or entertainer for the people who were smart enough to pay for someone to entertain them. Fortunato is the jester to Montresor; he is foolish enough to walk through the catacombs to his
"Yes," I said, "let us be gone." "_For the love of God, Montresor! _" "Yes," I said, "for the love of God” (The Cask of Amontillado, 387)! This conversation paragraph between Fortunato and Montresor shows that revenge can be blind sometimes. Lastly, at towards the end of the story, Montresor mentions, “Meno me impune lacessit” (The Cask of Amontillado,385).
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
The opening two paragraphs of The Cask of Amontillado early on allow the reader to comprehend two of Montresor's character traits; he is very deceptive and vengeful. Consequently, Montresor is able to hide his true intentions of vengeance through a persona of someone who is calm and benevolent. Montresor makes it clear that his revenge against Fortunato is based on him being offended or insulted by something that was done by Fortunato. Nevertheless, Montresor’s motivation is true because the text continues to say that Montresor is not the type of person to get offended easily; but he is smart and patient when it comes to seeking vengeance. Moreover, one is able to understand this from the very first sentence when he says, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge,” which leads us to conclude that Fortunato must have done something extremely grave to deserve death as revenge (Poe, 1). Furthermore, Montresor justifies his revenge by reasoning that he needs to defend his pride/status after being “insulted” by Fortunato. When Montresor continues to say, “a wrong is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong,” it is important to understand that Montresor wanted to feel as satisfied as the person who had insulted him, who in this case happened to be Fortunato (Poe, 1).
Conflict: For Montresor to revenge himself for Fortunato’s insult, he has to get away with it – if Fortunato can revenge him back,
For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible…” (Poe 5-6) and Fortunato persisted to continue, ultimately his death. Despite being the fortunate one, Fortunato lead himself to his own demise. Montresor’s lust for revenge goes all the way back to his family crest “No one Provokes me with impunity.” This highlights how Montresor feels like he needs to get revenge to keep his family name intact. Furthermore, there are also many ironic parallels made between the story and Catholic rituals. Montresor wears a roquelaire covering both his face and the back of his head. Looking like a hood, sleek, black executioner, Montresor resembles death while in contract Fortunato. In contrast Fortunato is dressed in motley carnival garb like a fool or clown (Clendenning). Coincidentally, after leading Fortunato to his grave by burning him alive as he laid the last brick he finished by shouting “for the love of god” (Poe 10) where Fortunato would lay for 50 years. Ironically despite Montresor enacting his revenge with impunity and never getting caught he is still filled with rage and anger even fifity years after while Fortunato was able to die peacefully (Clendenning).
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.
In the opening paragraph of the story, Montressor admits, “A thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but only when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. .I must not only punish, but punish with impunity” (344). Montresor is the only person narrating the story, so we only get his thoughts and feelings. He is clearly focused on revenge, just because Fortunado instilled it in him. He blatantly states that he doesn’t care about the physical injuries, but the insults are unforgivable.
After Fortunato cries out for the last time, Montresor comments “My heart grows sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so” (par. 89). Even in the last moment of Fortunato’s life, Montresor refuses to show any regret for murdering Fortunato. Throughout his plan, Montresor narrates the murder with great pride and without a hint of grief, making the story even more horrible. Analyzing Montresor’s actions more closely, Stepp observes “much of the slow horror of the tale derives from the sense that Montresor has indeed escaped retribution for his deed, that has acted out his readers’ most terrible phantasy: to murder ‘without conscience’…He ends by letting us know he has lived fifty triumphant years since the murder” (448). Stepp points out Montresor’s lack of conscience and moral sense. He does not feel any guilt while devising his plan to kill Fortunato, leading Fortunato to his death, or even burying Fortunato alive. Instead, readers view Montresor as a vicious predator, eager to kill his prey. Deranged and malicious, Montresor murders a man without guilt or
.” Poe incorporates this line to foreshadow the revenge Montressor plans to take on Fortunato. He does not plant to let Fortunato get away with what Montresor believes is wrong doing. Montressor discusses throughout the story of how Fortunato has wronged him by speaking ill of him in some way, but it is never expressly revealed to the reader what it was that Fortunato actually said. Poe chooses to not reveal what the actual insult was to help convey an unsure feeling in the reader.
A type of dramatic irony in the story can be seen in Fortunato’s attire at the carnival. Fortunato was dressed as a jester, though it was actually Montresor who was laughed at and ridiculed. Professor Charles N. Nevi, of the department of English in Medford, Oregon, writes about the irony in Fortunato’s dress when he says, “Fotunato’s dress is ironic, for a jester is not just a man to be laughed at; he is a man who makes others laugh by being aware of the frailties of mankind and then ridiculing them, but Fortunato is aware of very little and who ridicules nothing. It is Montresor who came closer to the role of jester,” (Nevi par.8). Here Professor Nevi suggests that Montresor is the one who is actually ridiculed and should be a better fit in the jester dress. These examples demonstrate Fortunato’s ironic misfortunes that lead to his eventual death.
narrator Montresor uses revenge as a motive to trick and murder and old friend, Fortunato, in the