How Does Montresor Dislike For Fortunato's Death

In 1846, Edgar Allan Poe wrote the story The Cask of Amontillado, which is about the ultimately fatal dispute between Montresor and Fortunato. When Fortunato questioned Montresor’s honor, Montresor thought up an elaborate scheme to kill Fortunato in the catacomb where all his family is buried. In this short story, Poe uses irony to emphasize Montresor’s dislike for Fortunato, how their names are different from their personalities, and ultimately, Fortunato’s death.

One way that Poe uses irony is to emphasize Montresor’s dislike for Fortunato. Up until the end of the story (before it was revealed that it was a flashback), Montresor pretended to be Fortunato’s friend. When Montresor was coming up with the plan to kill Fortunato, he knew his

When Montresor planned on killing Fortunato, he intended to do the deed in his family’s catacombs. Catacombs were typically used to bury people, but in this instance, “the catacombs were the perfect place for a murder” (eNotes). Montresor’s family was buried in the catacombs, which, even though they were the best place for the murder to happen, is a little ironic because despite the possibility of Montresor thinking Fortunato as family, that feeling went away when Fortunato insulted him. Additionally, there is the subject of the death itself. In the middle of the story, Montresor noticed that Fortunato had a cough, to which he said “the cough is a mere nothing: it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough” (238). This is ironic because when Fortunato stated that he would not die of a cough, he did not know that it would not be the cough that did him in, but his old friend Montresor. Moreover, there is also the pride that entailed the murder. Both Montresor’s pride and Fortunato’s pride played a part in the death. For example, “[Fortunato] prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine” (236), and he did not particularly think before he spoke, which was just worsened when he was drunk. This was sardonic because Fortunato’s pride was the thing that ultimately lead to his demise. In like manner, there is also the subject of Montresor’s pride. It is stated in the first paragraph of the story that “the thousand injuries of Fortunato [he] had borne as [he] best could, but when he ventured upon insult, [he] vowed revenge” (236). Needless to say, if Montresor took Fortunato’s insult with a grain of salt, he would not have been driven to kill him, which would erase the whole plot of the book. Montresor vowing revenge on Fortunato is ironic because there might have been times in the past when Montresor insulted Fortunato, but he was probably too incompetent to notice the