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

former friend loved wine, so he used that against him and lured him to the catacomb by talking about the Amontillado that is in there. Wine, no matter what kind it was, typically symbolized friendship, but this is ironic because in this case, it was a symbol of disassociation. Along with Montresor pretending he and Fortunato were friends, there was also the way he spoke to Fortunato. The way Montresor spoke to Fortunato made it seem like they were friends, which was ironic because he knew that they were not and friends do not typically kill each other. Close to the beginning of the story, Montresor says “my dear Fortunato, you’re luckily met” (237). That was ironic because Montresor had a certain distaste for “[his] dear Fortunato.”
Another way Poe uses irony is to accentuate how Montresor’s and Fortunato’s names are different from their personalities. Montresor is French for “my treasure,” and from appearances, it makes it seem like his family honor is his treasure. This is evident in Montresor’s family motto: “Nemo me impune lacessit” or, in English, “No one attacks me with impunity.” The satire behind this is that while Montresor does not like his honor or his family’s honor to be attacked, he’s not worried about attacking other people’s honor which is visible when he calls Fortunato a fool (it is not clear if that was his intention, but it still happened). Fortunato also has a name contrasted to his experiences. His name is the same way. Fortunato means fortune or fortunate in Italian or Latin (eNotes), and that, in it of itself, is actually quite paradoxical because him being killed in a catacomb was not too fortunate. Also, there is the bit about the jester outfit Fortunato wore to Carnival. In the medieval days, the court jester was typically known as “the royal fool from a retainer who combined folly with other court duties to a distinct and distinctly treated member of the household” (Wilson). This is untrue because everyone else thought of Fortunato as a fool, but he himself did not think he was one.
Furthermore, Poe uses irony to intensify Fortunato’s untimely death..

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

insult.
The Cask of Amontillado is so saturated with irony and deception, that when Montresor killed Fortunato, nobody knew about it for fifty years. In fact, it was not until Montresor was presumably on his deathbed that anyone found out what he did to his former ally. For that Carnival night, Fortunato did not know he was going to die at the hands of the man who was supposedly his friend. Some might say Fortunato was not so fortunate after all.