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Literary thesis statement of the cask of amontillado by edgar allan poe
Theme of cask of amontillado
Literary thesis statement of the cask of amontillado by edgar allan poe
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What is the definition of Insanity? Is getting revenge on a person the right thing to do? In this short story called “ The Cask of Amontillado ”, written by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is about a gentleman named Montresor who swore revenge on another gentleman named Fortunato by taking him to the catacombs of Montresor's family that was under their plazzo. So from understanding and reading the story, clearly Montresor is insane but he’s not completely insane. He still has some sane inside of himself. Within the story, Montresor is really losing his mind by showing that he wants to kill Fortunato but we the readers don’t know why he wants to kill him. In this passage, “ The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when
he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge ” (Poe 212). This shows that Montresor is crazy because he is going to kill someone without telling the readers the reason why is going to kill Fortunato. Throughout this story, Montresor can be sane but in a bad way. This quote in the story “ There were no attendants at home; they had absconded to make merry in honor of the time. I had told them that I should not return until the morning and had given them explicit orders not to stir in the house ” (Poe 214). This quote shows that Montresor is an planner and can wait patiently for the right moment to take out Fortunato, Montresor can be pretty intelligent. Even though Montresor can be sane but he is more insane than sane. In this part of the story, Montresor chains Fortunato up, built a wall to wall him in and left him their to die. The quote is “ The noise lasted several minutes I might hearken to it with the more satisfaction, I creased my labors and sat down upon the bones” (Poe 217). This shows how Montresor is determined and really want to murder Fortunato. In conclusion, in the story “ The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor is clearly insane but he has some sane inside of him. Some of the reasons that he is insane is Montresor wants to get revenge but we don’t know why he he wants revenge, and Montresor chained up Fortunato, walled up him and left him there to die. He can sane and one of the reasons is that Montresor is very intelligent and smart by planning everything out and picking out the right time for everything. Is getting revenge on a person the right thing to do?
Montresor must trick and manipulate Fortunato to accomplish his goal of revenge. He tells Fortunato the reason he is at the ...
Is there really a perfect crime? This is the main point in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” The story is a dark tale of a presumably insane man who suffers from, according to him, “the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could” (Poe 75). One of the major factors in telling this story is the setting. The story is set primarily in the Montresor family catacombs, which provides the dark setting, filled with human remains, and this reflects where Montresor commits his crime, where no one will expect. Furthermore, the narration also helps in telling the story. It is first person point of view, so the story is heard entirely from him. Readers will go into Montresor’s thoughts and be curious about why he wants to kill Fortunato so badly. Furthermore, the symbolism of the story is very important and many symbols in symbolizing Montresor killing Fortunato. Finally, the insane Montresor tried to pull the perfect crime but fails; he does not pull the perfect crime, he fails his goal when he realizes he is doing a bad thing.
In "Cask of Amontillado", Montresor is the narrator. "The thousand of injuries of Fortunato he has borne as he best could; but when he ventures upon insult, Montresor vows revenge" (Poe 528). As the story unfolds, "Montresor's idea of perfect revenge" is "characteristically precise and logical in detail" as to how he commits his crime (Delaney 1).
In her article, Renee utters that when the thought of vengeance build up in an individual’s brain, it coerces him insane and does not tolerate him to present it a second thought. The first sentence of the story, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge,” clearly describes the whole theme of the story as a deeply enrooted revenge in Montresor’s mind” which is an absolute portrayal of retribution that occurs due to arrogance and jealousy. Author sees himself as a superior individual and was victimized by a superiority complex which is quite visible through the phrases which he wrote in the story that Montressor expresses superiority as showed his victim as a foolish person by attributing weird physical appearance and dress appearance in which he described his dress code of “tight fitting parti striped dress and head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.”
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is a story of one man’s revenge on another. Montresor feels insulted by Fortunato for unspecified reasons. At the height of carnival season Montresor meets Fortunato and lures him to his death with the offer of a rare sherry. Fortunato reveals before his death that he is a Freemason but Montresor is not. Montresor is a Catholic. The Catholic Church deems Freemasons as heretics. This reveals the “insult” that Montresor has had to bare from Fortunato. It is Montresor’s duty to act as the hand of God and kill this heretic. Fortunato is foolish in his trust of Montresor, believing Montresor is his friend. Fortunato is consumed with his hedonistic lifestyle to the point of it leading him to his own death. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” symbolically conveys the anti-Masonic beliefs of the Catholic Church through Montresor’s murder of Fortunato, the heretic.
Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado" is similar to the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" in that his obsession with consuming the soul of Fortunato influences his every action. However, it is with Fortunato himself that he is obsessed. He feeds off of Fortunato's pain, unlike the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" who's obsession is with destroying a menacing inanimate object. Montresor's entire conspiracy is focused around making Fortunato suffer, and for him to know just who is causing this suffering. This is why he goes to such lengths to put together this intricate strategy. It could have been so much easier to kill Fortunato in some easier, quicker way. Instead, he dedicates himself to torturing Fortunato. He creates a plan that leads Fortunato into the depths of the catacombs beneath his home, and kills him in an excruciating manner.
Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Cask Of Amontillado," is a between two enemies. It humorously portrays the foil of Fortunato, as he is led through the catacombs. Poe's humour is dark, sarcastic and very ironic, which quickly becomes a signpost of the tale. Poe sets himself apart from other authors in his works, based on how he depicts and encounters death. It accentuates the notion that at times, your worst enemy will appear as your best friend. Pride is the downfall of every man and the same can be said for witty and daring tale fortunato.
“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (Poe 165). This story by Edgar Allan Poe is a very dark story like most of his work. It is never stated what the insults that Fortunato made are, so it is left to the reader to ponder what it could be. I would bet Montresor has never heard the saying sticks and stones might break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Montresor manages to plan this murder to the point that he is telling us this story fifty years after it has happened. He makes this clear very early in the story that “I must not just punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed with retribution overtakes its redresor. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong” (Poe 165). Montresor has to make sure he gets his point across to Fortunato. Montresor has to make sure the way he kills Fortunato is planned well enough to not get caught and punished. Trying to understand what is going on inside the head of this mad man is what this story is all about. The key aspects of the story include understanding why Montresor had decided to kill Fortunato, deciding how to lure him into the catacombs, and understanding why he chose this place as well as how killed Fortunato.
Montresor narrates that he had borne the thousand injuries of Fortunato as best he could. The reader is left unfortunately to imagine what these injuries could be. The tipping point in this relationship is also not explained. Fortunato has insulted Montresor and this he could not bear without revenge. We are introduced to this betrayal of Montresor by Fortunato, but we are left with no details to explain the cold and calculating plan of Montresor. Fortunato must have wounded Montresor greatly, yet he fails to give us enough or any information to allow the readers mind to prosecute Fortunato for his alleged crime against his friend. Montresor assumes the reader will understand his injury, and becomes not only the judge but the jury and executioner of Fortunato as well. The wounded pride of a man driving him to assault even a friend is not a new device developed by Edgar Allen Poe, but the little to no explanation given the reader by his central narrator is a little different. In the famous Burr and ...
The greatest question is if Fortunato was the biggest fool to drunkenly trust Montresor, or if Montresor is the fool for overreacting. Although Montresor had his doubts that he must satisfy, murdering Fortunato over a single insult was hardly worth it. Montresor’s final wish that Fortunato rests in peace confirms that he would live to regret his decision. Even though Fortunato is the one that dies due to this dispute, and wasn’t nearly as fortunate as him name suggests, Montresor had to live at least fifty more years with this guilt; making Fortunato the freer character of the two despite is eternal confinement.
Maybe Montresor is giving us his prideful details of how he got away with the perfect murder. Revealing to us that Montresor revenge was nothing more than a twisted plot of a psychopath "Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by deficits in personality and behavior. Personality deficits are marked by interpersonal and affective facets, including pathological lying, grandiose sense of self-worth, lack of remorse and callousness." (Thompson) . Montresor presents with three of the signs necessary to have a diagnosis antisocial behavior. According to Mayo Clinic, One of the symptoms is using charm or wit manipulate others for personal gain or sheer pleasure. Montresor proclaims that he smiles in Montresor 's face to hide his intention but "my smile now was at the thought of his immolation" (Poe), and he also states that " I was so pleased to him, that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand." two instances in the story where it could be interpreted as one of the symptoms. Another symptom is "Persistent lying or deceit to exploit others"(Mayo). The whole story of Montresor having a cask of Amontillado is predicated on a lie and almost everything he said to Fortunato was a lie from his intent on finding Luchresi to bring him to the wine to his outlandish lie about being a Mason..The last symptom that would make Montresor a
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.
Revenge can be an act of sanity or insanity. Insanity is a state of mind where a person lacks emotion and the ability for a higher level of thought. In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character, Montresor, murders Fortunato for insulting him. Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs under his mansion during Carnival in Italy with the promise of amontillado. Montresor walls Fortunato into a niche, thereby killing him. Montresor is sane because he is able to think of a plan to kill Fortunato and feel regret after the deed is done.
Revenge can be an act of sanity or insanity. Insanity is a state of mind where a person lacks emotion and the ability for a higher level of thought. Conversely, sanity is a state of being where a person is in complete control of their emotions and cognitive functions. In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character, Montresor, murders Fortunato for insulting him. Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs under his mansion during Carnival in Italy with the promise of Amontillado. Montresor walls Fortunato into a niche, thereby killing him. Montresor is sane because he is able to think of a plan to kill Fortunato and feel regret after the deed is done.
Some people would like to think that just because you kill somebody, it does not make you a bad person or insane. That is not the case. If you can get so mad over something that you are going to take a life, there is something wrong going on in your mind. You obviously cannot think for yourself to make good rational decisions. In this story Montresor,who is insane, never shows any remorse, never reveals a good reason for why he is mad at Fortunato, and never, even after half a century, thinks his desire for vengeance is excessive or abnormal.