Motive In The Cask Of Amontillado

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In his article “On Memory Forgetting, and Complicity in “the Cask of Amontillado”” Raymond DiSanza suggests that an act of wrongdoing is always at the heart of good horror stories. (194) DiSanza’s article on “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe describes Poe’s writing in a way I didn’t think of myself. DiSanza finds Poe’s language in this story to “taste like amontillado: smooth, slightly sweet, and appropriately chilled”. (DiSanza 195) Throughout his article he mostly talks about what possibly could have been Montresor’s motive to kill Fortunato? And why did Montresor wait fifty years to tell the story? DiSanza finds that “we allow ourselves to ignore the important details withheld from us: Montresor’s audience, his motive, and …show more content…

He has over twenty sources; ranging from books on all types of literary work, websites and scholarly articles. One of the sources DiSanza uses is an article written by James E. Rocks called “Conflict and Motive in “The Cask of Amontillado””. DiSanza explains how Rocks convincingly tells us he believes “Montresor regards Fortunato as both a political and a religious enemy and is thus motivated by “a faithful Catholic’s hatred and fear of the brotherhood of freemasonry””. (195) Rocks looks at Poe’s work in a very religious aspect, he points out how in the beginning of the story Montresor refers to Fortunato 's death as an “immolation”. Suggesting the murder to be some sort of religious sacrifice. (Rock 50) Rock also points out that he believes the final words spoken between Montresor and Fortunato reveals Montresor’s motive: “For the love of God, Montresor!” “Yes,” I said, “for the love of God!”. (50) A few sentences later, Rock claims that Montresor’s execution of vengeance against fortunato is because “he believes he must protect God’s word and his church against his enemies and who demonstrates his “love” of God in this deed of sacrifice”. DiSanza also quotes from another article called “Poetic Justice in “The Cask of Amontillado””, which was written by Kent Bales. DiSanza points out that Bales pushes a similar idea which Rock pushes; they look …show more content…

In his article, he mainly wanted to answer two questions; 1) What could have been Montresor’s motive to kill Fortunato? And 2) Why did he wait fifty years to tell the story? As I finished DiSanza’s article, neither of those questions were actually answered. I guess that’s because no one but Poe himself could really tell us readers why. Bales, Kent and Gargano were DiSanza’s most used sources and even those authors couldn’t answer his main questions, which he based his article around. I found that while reading “On Memory, Forgetting, and Complicity in “The Cask of Amontillado”” by Raymond DiSanza, Edgar Allan Poe’s short story causes the reader to ask many questions. In which, those questions interconnect more frequently than you’d think. DiSanza makes you realize Poe never mentions Montresor’s motive because he knew exactly how the readers would react. A great tactic Poe brilliantly uses, purposefully leaving out information in order to create suspense and mystery; causing the reader to wonder. Poe wanted us to overanalyze and try to figure out the many possibilities behind these questions, he wanted us to think in a way we wouldn’t have. He is able to avoid giving examples of what these injuries Fortunato put upon Montresor were. Poe 's problem in writing this story include keeping the reader somewhat sympathetic for a man who was able to bury another man

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