Analysis: The Cask Of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe

Topic/Theme: Motive

Course Reading: “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe

Baraban, Elena V. “The Motive for Murder in "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe”. Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 58.2 (2004): 47–62. JSTOR. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

This source takes a look at the possible motives that Montresor would have for murdering Fortunato in “The Cask of Amontillado” and argues that he feels no remorse. Baraban starts by stating that, Montresor never directly gives a motive for the murder of Fortunato and that he is just a man taking pleasure in the fact that he committed a murder and did not get caught. She incorporates other writers quoted phrases as examples of there being no evidence of empathy towards the victim,

He tells us that is was a rocky relationship and that they never got along. Rust also suggests that the “thousand injuries of Fortunato” might have been the thousand injuries towards Poe from English. Actually, this was not the first time Poe characterized himself in his stories. English and Poe fought relentlessly for years and even took it as far as a libel suit. The writer believes that just because Poe shares Montresor’s urge for revenge does not mean he actually had murderous tendencies towards English. Poe simply just wanted to write the perfect story of revenge to use it as an instrument against English. English eventually does a response called” Reply to Mr. Poe” using assassination as a metaphor. Rust concludes by saying that “’The Cask of Amontillado’ would only highlight Poe’s genius and reveal English’s weaker literary

DiSanza begins with stating that the language and type of narration the story exudes is that of being drunk from the drinks that Fortunato is drinking, “His drunkenness is our drunkenness.” (195) DiSanza also says that as the audience, in our drunken state, we ignore details such as the motive and Poe’s purpose for telling the story. Some of the theories for motive in “The Cask of Amontillado” include James E. Rocks’ who opposes that Montresor regards Fortunato as both a political and a religious enemy and is therefore motivated by “a faithful Catholic’s hatred and fear of the brotherhood of freemasonry.” (Rocks, 1927). Another is that of Elena V. Barban, who believes that since there is no explanation for Montresor’s hatred for Fortunato, it concludes that Montresor is insane. DiSanza explains that if Montresor is insane, then he neither needs an audience or a motive. He also also compares this type of analysis to other Poe tales and their lack of