More handpicked essays just for you.
3 themes in the cask of amontillado
3 themes in the cask of amontillado
Appreciate the theme of the cask of Amontillado
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
For humans, anger is a natural response when someone has done you wrong, or hurt you in some way. How each individual deals with anger, is very important though. Montresor, in “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, is angry with his “friend”, Fortunato. He feels he dealt with Fortunato and the list of his grievances for way too long, and has build up a resentment. Montresor takes his resentment so far, as to luring Fortunato in with Amontillado and killing him. Montresor’s sneakiness, bitterness, and need for revenge compels him to murder Fortunato. In the story, Montresor is very sneaky and deceitful. Montresor made it appear as if he were Fortunato’s friend when he told Fortunato in the cave after a coughing fit occurred, “‘Come,’ I said, with decision, ‘we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed,’” (2). Montresor managed to sneakily deceive Fortunato into thinking he wished him no harm! Fortunato was very sure that Montresor was a friend, not an enemy, and Montresor gave no hint to his plan! You see Montresor acting like Fortunato’s friend after they discuss the masons, “...replacing the tool under my cloak and again offering (Fortunato) my arm. He …show more content…
leaned upon it heavily,” (3). Montresor succeeds in tricking Fortunato into thinking he is his friend, by not only his words, but actions as well. This quote shows his actions in deceiving Fortunato. It would not be normal to offer your enemy your arm to lean upon, so this furthers the deception. With these things considered, it is easy to see that Montresor is very sneaky and deceiving. Montresor has also given major sign that he is very bitter towards Fortunato. You can see his bitterness in the opening sentence, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge,” (1). This quote shows how Montresor is bitter, because of the multiple things Fortunato has done to him. Montresor’s bitterness leads to him to murdering Fortunato, as he couldn’t take Fortunato’s grievances any longer. The motivation behind everything Montresor does in this story stems from his need for revenge.
The quote in the last paragraph perfectly gets this point across, but he also talks about the revenge more in his next sentences, “At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely settled-but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity,” (1). Montresor is set on seeking revenge, and would do anything to get there. Montresor then addresses that he WILL get revenge, but he doesn’t know how far he will go. He doesn’t want to get caught and then punished for him punishing Fortunato. As can be seen, Montresor’s fuel is his
revenge. It is obvious, then, that the murder of Fortunato was completed through sneakiness and deception, a deeply-rooted bitterness, and a burning need for revenge. This is significant, because without these three characteristics of Montresor, his plan to murder Fortunato may not have worked out. He needed to be sneaky and able to deceive, and he needed to have a motive and justification. Montresor had a natural response of anger when he was done wrong, and he took that and twisted the anger to the point of murder.
Montresor must trick and manipulate Fortunato to accomplish his goal of revenge. He tells Fortunato the reason he is at the ...
Between the “Most Dangerous Game” and the “Cask of Amontillado” Montresor is more evil. Something must have happened to Montresor in his childhood life to make him the man he is. If you ever heard that quote “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”, that is exactly what Montresor is doing. He will manipulate Fortunato by using all his weaknesses to bring him down. With this in mind Montresor will do anything to get revenge, even if that means someone will have to die.
It is constantly seen that people take revenge on each other in the real world so it comes to no surprise that Montresor is taking revenge on Fortunato. Specifically in this story Montresor will feel better if he “not only punish but punish with impunity” (108 Poe). But further on what I found to even more realistic was that this wasn’t normal revenge, this was pure mastermind torture. Montresor knew that Fortunato was sick with Montresor saying “…but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted”(109 Poe) regarding that he didn’t want Fortunato to come down to his vaults, but Montresor true intentions were wanting Fortunato to fight Montresor request of not coming, and it worked. Montresor also knew how well Fortunato was at differencing wine “I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter” (109 Poe). By Montresor exploiting Fortunato’s sickness and skill of wines, Montresor knew that he could get Fortunato in the vaults where he could execute his revenge. At a first glance this may not seem lifelike because there’s an assumption to be made that people aren’t this immoral. But the truth is that the revenge that Montresor conducted is seen constantly in our culture. It’s undeniably real of the monstrosity that was made by Montresor when comparing it to the wicked
When they arrive at the Montresor estate, Montresor leads Fortunato down the stairs into the catacombs. Down here is where the Amontillado Fortunato is going to taste and where the revenge of Montresor is going to take place. As he get closer and closer, the narrator opens up more and more to how he is going to kill his "friend". It sound like it is a premeditated murder. Montresor seems so inconspicuous that he acts like he cares about Fortunato which is still a part of his plan.
In Edgar Allen Poe's “ The Cask Of Amontillado”, Montresor, the narrator is insane. “The Cask Of Amontillado” is a story of revenge. Montresor is mad at Fortunato because he said an insult about Montresor. He got so mad that he plotted an extremely good plan to kill Fortunato. At the end of the story Montresor did eventually go to the catacombs and kill him, but nobody has found out that he is dead and it has been 50 years ago. Montresor is insane because he is pleased by the sound of other people's misfortune and suffering and he wants revenge over an insult.
Treachery and revenge are the most horrific ways to express the anger toward friends, but what happens when they lead to a painful death? “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity” (5). This is how Montresor, the main character in Edgar Allane Poe’s short story The Cask of Amontillado, described his desire to kill his friend Fortunato, the second character. Montresor was seeking for vengeance of his friend Fortunato, because the latter had insulted him. The narrator during his telling the story did not refer to the reason that motivated him to kill his friend or even not mention to the readers what kind of insult he received form Fortunato. During the carnival festival, Fortunato is mesmerized by Montresor through reverse psychology.
In The Cask of Amontillado, the theme of revenge is established at the start of the story, when the narrator states that he suffered irreversible insult by his associate, Fortunato, thus he vowed to avenge this action. This is evident in the following statement in the opening paragraph of the story, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 7). Therefore, it is apparent to the reader from the onset of the story that revenge is a major driving force for Montresor for him to dreadfully murder his acquaintance,...
Accordingly, Poe is well responsive to this psychological trait of the human brain. Likewise, Poe employs the perception of perversity and remorse in “The Cask of Amontillado.” The reason of burying Fortunato is not only vengeance, but also a robust reaction that is described in “The Black Cat”. There is a passionate yearning in Montresor to hurt Fortunato even if he has not made any harm to him. Although Montresor asserts that he has been injured several times by Fortunato, he cannot defy calling him “respected, admired, beloved,” admitting his “good nature,” and also calling him “noble” (Little 212). These expressions confirmed that Fortunato is a good quality person and the expression “injuries” used in the first phase of the story is simply a hyperbole that Montresor’s psyche has fabricated. Furthermore, wickedness does not come unaccompanied, but it carries itself a sense of remorse. Even if Montresor reflects himself as the diplomat of his family for deafening down rivals, he suffers remorse while walling up Fortunato. Consequently, Poe’s clasp of unreasonableness and culpability of the human mind is
Hoping to obtain revenge, Montresor, the narrator, lures Fortunato, one of his friends, into the depths of his catacombs to be murdered. Montresor says, "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge"(149). This is the first line in the story, and this is why Montresor seeks revenge. There is no explanation of the insults that Montresor received, so the reader may infer that Montresor is just lying. The insults that were received could possibly be just outdoing in the business arena. Montresor might be using that excuse for his desire to kill Fortunato, because he may be killing Fortunato out of jealousy. Montresor is likely telling this story to a family member, friend, or his doctor while lying on his deathbed. Montresor says, "…your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter."(150). Montresor just admitted that he knows Fortunato is better than he. Montresor may have been under the influence of jealousy. Redd 4 There are different theories to ...
The pursuit of revenge is not always the right choice to make. As this theme is shown in the short stories written by Edgar Allen Poe and William Faulkner. The two main characters of the stories have hate fueling their motivation to commit cruel acts against others. In the story “Cask of Amontillado”, written by Edgar Allen Poe, Montresor kills a man simply for insulting his family name. In the story “Barn Burning”, written by William Faulkner, Abner takes out his anger on others by destroying property and punishing the world for his poor lifestyle. Abner and Montresor seek revenge for different reasons; however, they do it to honor themselves. These actions will lead to their impending demise.
and his family, Montresor retaliated by plotting to kill him. Montresor thought of Fortunato as a
The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe describes how Montresor confesses the sequence of his well-designed or nearly flawless murder or revenge against Fortunato due to he is a threat to him. In his confession of a perfect crime, Montresor, who “vowed revenge” because of Fortunato’s “thousand injuries,” first say that his “heart grew sick” and then immediately add, “ it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so because he believes Fortunato insults him many times that his hatred against him become bigger and bigger. This makes him cannot stand for Fortunato’s behavior anymore as well as the setting completely makes everything prefect as he believes Fortunato deserves the punishment. The nature and family hold a significant role
In the opening lines Montresor explains what Fortunato has done to him: ?he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge?(75. The next line Montresor explains that he did not threaten him back and he did not reply to the threats. It was not in Montresor?s nature to do return the threat, ?You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat?(75).
The theme of revenge in “The Cask of Amontillado” is the driving force for the entire short story. The main character, Montresor, vows to take revenge against the other main character, Fortunato, because of an “insult” that Fortunato has apparently made against Montresor (Baraban). This is evident in the opening line of the short story when the narrator Montresor states, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge (Poe 1612). This opening line makes it obvious that the insult is what directly led to Montresor’s insatiable desire for revenge, but there are also some underlying factors that could have indirectly led to this revenge as well.
Montressor has a detailed plan to murder Fortunato and he goes to great lengths to