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Fortunato’s name is ironic because in “Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, he meets an unfortunate ending. Fortunato is an insulting and arrogant person with an addiction. Fortunato insults Montresor so many times that Montresor seeks revenge. Montresor plotted for many months how he would get this revenge on Fortunato. Montresor was able to get Fortunato into his catacombs and imprison him forever. Montresor uses Fortunato’s flaws to help kill him. Fortunato’s ending is brought on by his previous actions and flaws.
Fortunato insults Montresor to the point of desperation. Montresor says “THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe, 286). Even right before his death he insults Montresor’s family code of arms. If not for his insults he would have not been murdered.
If Fortunato was not such an arrogant man he could have seen Montresor’s hate of him. He is so full of himself he thinks everybody loves him. He believes that he is the best wine expert and Montresor uses this against him. Montresor describes Fortunato in the following quote. “He had a weak point – this Fortunato – although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared. He prided himself on this connoisseurship in wine”(Poe, 286).
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The last flaw of Fortunato is his addiction to wine.
He is drunk when Montresor first meet him that night. Montresor describes meeting Fortunato that night by saying, “He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much” (Poe, 286). Fortunato continues to drink as the night goes on. The wine clouds his judgment and made him susceptible to Montresor’s plan. Fortunato should have noticed that all of Montresor’s servants were gone and no one was around to witness them. Even if he had the chance to fight back he couldn’t because he was so drunk. This is one of the flaws of his personality that leads to his
death. Thus all these character flaws contribute to his death. His flaws are that he is an insulting and arrogant person with an addiction to wine. Fortunato is not so fortunate making his name ironic. He constant insults drive Montresor to seek revenge. His arrogance and addiction to wine help Montresor to lure him to this ultimate death.
Montresor does not want Fortunato to die from anything other than his own plan of slow death by asphyxiation. Symbolism in "The Cask of Amontillado" This story by Poe has numerous examples of symbolism. For example, the manner in which Fortunato is dressed is ironic for a man with his societal prominence.
Montresor is a man who feels pride in himself and in his family, so when Fortunato—an acquaintance of Montresor— “venture[s] upon insult,” Montresor “vow[s] revenge” against him (1). Montresor hastily decides that he must kill Fortunato, even though his use of the word “venture” implies that Fortunato had not yet insulted him, but nearly did. Montresor’s impulsive need for revenge causes him to formulate a plan to murder his acquaintance. He keeps Fortunato intoxicated by “presenting him…[with] wine,” he “fetter[s] him to the granite,” and he “plaster[s] up… [a wall of] new masonry” to trap Fortunato in the catacombs (39, 71, 89). All of these acts are signs that the need for revenge has made Fortunato insane. A person who has any sense of morals would not commit crimes such as Montresor’s. His impetuous decision to exact revenge caused him to lose his
Montresor takes full advantage of the fact that Fortunato has a soft spot for fine wines. Montresor seeing that the only opportunity that he would have to exert revenge would be when wine is to be drunk in surplus decides to wait until the Carnival Season. We are told of one evening during the season when Montresor invites Fortunato over to his place. The major reason for the invite is to have Fortunato taste a sample of sherry that he had acquired to ascertain if the s...
Fortunato exhibits extreme narcissism upon himself and fails to see the bigger picture going on around him. Montresor expended a great amount of time in thinking of a way to defeat his prey in his own world. His target had a weakness of lust for wine, in fact he, prided himself in his connoisseurship. Consequently, too much pride can be harmful according to Jessica Tracy, “hubristic pride is related to narcissistic traits like entitlement, arrogance, and egotism” all which Fortunato exemplified (Oprah). Montresor baited Fortunato into his pleasure “As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchesi” though we never meet Luchesi his character is of lesser rank when it comes to wine connoisseurship (Poe). Montresor was very clever in this quiet deed; he even took the time to provide many outs for Fortunato whether it was concern for his prey’s health or warnings of harsh conditions ahead. Drunk and prideful he could care less about his health during the cold trot through the vaults “The cold is merely nothing… and as for Luchesi, he cannot distinguish Sherry from Amontillado” thus his narcissistic ways are even selfish to his own temple (Poe). Fortunato ignores his plethora of coughs and implies to move forward while Montresor ensures him that his health is too precious but again triggers him saying Luchesi is in a
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.”
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 ...
In this short story, examples of irony and foreshadowing are presented very often in between lines. One of the very first things that I find as the biggest irony in this short story fiction is the victim’s name “Fortunato”. As I looked up the definition of the name, Fortunato means fortunate which is very ironic due to the fact that he is going to die, and be walled up in the catacombs. Aside from that, I also found a verbal irony at the very beginning of the story when Montresor first sees Fortunato at the carnival and says “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met,” (Poe) .I found this to be very much ironic because, Fortunato is not actually lucky to have met Montresor who is actually going to murder him.
and his family, Montresor retaliated by plotting to kill him. Montresor thought of Fortunato as a
In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” Montresor who has been so humiliated by Fortunato that the only way Montresor can be satisfied is with revenge. So Montresor decides that Fortunato is going to get the worst punishment ever. Therefore the night of the Carnival Montresor invites Fortunato to this palazzo. He tells him that he needs help with an Amontillado (sherry wine) because he has doubts about it. Montresor decides to tease Fortunato because he knows Fortunato has too much pride and he tells him “ I am in my way to Luchresi. If anyone has a critical turn it is he. He will tell me.” (Poe 20) There was
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
For all he knew, he was being invited to his friend’s place to grab a drink and sort their previous beef out. For both of the characters knew they used to not get along, but as Poe conveys his story, the readers is under the impression that Fortunato is ready to look past their quarrel but Montresor on the other hands, does not let go of arguments very well. When Fortunato arrives at Montresor’s door, he is greeted with a warm and friendly smile, little could he tell what was about to come of him. The reader assumes that Fortunato pretends like the past did not happen and allows Montresor to be so friendly, or so he thinks. In honor of the carnival that was happening this very same night, the two get a drink together, Fortunato more than Montresor. (Foy) Montresor offers him more and more wine. At this point, Fortunato is fairly intoxicated and is very gullible. He is offered some very rare wine by Montresor, and him being the wine lover he seems to be, is all in to get this special wine! Even up to his death, Fortunato seems to be a happy, go with the flow kind of person. He then realizes at the end, that he will be no more in the
We are never told what was said but whatever was said angered Montresor enough to set a plot to kill Fortunato. Fortunato’s character is described as being dressed as a fool. So couldn’t be possible that since it’s his job to entertain that made he didn’t mean to truly insult Montresor that he was just trying to entertain a crowd of people when he insulted Montresor. Murder seems to be a harsh way to get revenge over something that could
When Fortunato is greedy, we can see how montresor could have taken advantage of him. Due to the face that Fortunato is greedy with his wines, we can see that Montresor could have very easily gotten sick of him. "...but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this respect I did not differ from his materially: I was skillful in the Italian vintages myself..." (. ) this indicates that Montresor and Fortunato both love wine but Fortunato was more greedy when it comes to the good wine. Montresor said he had just as good of taste for good wine but Fortunato did not think so. It clear from this situation that Montresor is jealous that Fortunato has better wine tasting skills.
Montresor uses Fortunato’s “weak point…He prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine” (108). Montresor perceives Fortunato’s pride as “kryptonite,” but perceives his own pride as a strength. He preys upon Fortunato’s determination to taste an imaginary cask of amontillado, by teasing his plans to have another man Luchresi, taste the wine; Montresor says, “If anyone has a critical turn, it is he” (109). Fortunato’s pride is incapable of accepting that anyone is better at wine-tasting than himself and says, “You have been imposed upon; and as for Luchresi, he cannot distinguish Sherry from Amontillado” (109), insulting both Montresor and Luchresi. Fortunato is so profoundly blinded by his pride that he fails to see the consequence of his insult to Montresor. Fortunato questions Montresor’s claim of masonry after throwing a bottle up into the air. Even though Montresor did not understand Fortunato’s gesture, Montresor assures him, “Yes, yes,” (111) that he is indeed a mason. Because Fortunato responds, “You? Impossible! A mason?” (111) in such disbelief, he insults Montresor by questioning his masonry, in which also insults Montresor’s family. Unfortunately unaware that his pride led him down a path to his death, he gets caught in Montresor’s
In the commencement of the story, Montresor speaks of Fortunato’s mastery judgment of wines. Although this skill was desired at the time, Fortunato was conceited about the ability he was blessed with.