The Cask Of Amontillado Revenge Quotes

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Many of us would agree with that cliché quote, and this is a quote that resonates well with a famous short story written by Edgar Allan Poe named The Cask of Amontillado. In summation, The Cask of Amontillado expresses the thoughts and feelings of the protagonist Montresor. Montresor is seeking revenge on a long-time acquaintance named Fortunato, the antagonist in the story because Fortunato “ventured upon insult” (Poe 179). Although the story is a narration of Montresor carrying out his plot of seeking revenge upon Fortunato, the sequence of events leading up to the unfortunate outcome of Fortunato expresses a more profound theme. Arguably, there are many themes that are expressed throughout this story,

but the theme that jumps out the most is the theme of justice. To clarify, the story is a representation to some degree of the procedures of a criminal justice system. Therefore, the actions of Montresor seeking revenge upon Fortunato is parallel to that of a criminal justice system that has gone corrupt.
With the collision of The Cask of Amontillado and the idea of a corrupt criminal justice system, the first upbringing of this evidence presents itself at the debut of the story, which sets the scene of a metaphorical “court room”. “. . . At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled-but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk.” (Poe 179), it is already shown that Montresor, narrating the story, is hurt by actions of Fortunato, Montresor is hurt so bad that he already decides to punish Fortunato for his actions. To compare that first part with a justice system, the image for a metaphorical “court room” is set because Montresor at that point already establishes himself as the judge. As the judge of the “court”, the role is to preside over court proceedings in order to conduct an impartial trial. With that being said, Montresor has reason to be partial in this situation because he is the individual who is hurt by Fortunato. Due to being partial, there is no doubt that Montresor’s reasoning to proceed to seek revenge upon Fortunato is based upon bias. Next, Montresor instantly finds reason to justify the fact that Fortunato is in the wrong for whatever actions he did to hurt Montresor. Furthermore, Montresor decides to punish Fortunato for his actions, which alludes to another aspect of a metaphorical “court room”, the jury or fact finder. Montresor establishes himself as the jury of the court room after coming to the decision that Fortunato committed a wrongdoing and that there will be consequences. Lastly, Montresor also plays the role as the executioner in the criminal justice system. Given that Montresor does carry out his plot to seek revenge, the exact punishment will be discussed later.
Another aspect that points to the theme of a corrupt criminal justice system in the story of The Cask of Amontillado is surprisingly the imagery used within the story.

The first instance of this when Poe describes the physical appearance of both Montresor and Fortunato. “Thus speaking, Fortunato possessed himself on my arm; and putting on a mask of black silk . . . I suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo”. (Poe 180) To put it another way, the black silk mask is covering the face of Montresor, blinding him. It is established that Montresor is the judge, jury, and executioner of a criminal justice system, and therefore he is covering his face with a black silk mask symbolizing blindness. In other words, Montresor is not aware of the injustice that is about to take place which then leads to the unjustified punishment of Fortunato. According to Matthew B. Robinson, a criminologist at Appalachian State University, the American criminal justice system has shifted its’ function to serve more as a way to be tougher on crime rather than closely follow the procedure of due process (Justice Blind? Ideal and Realities of American Criminal Justice). Due to the fact that the American criminal justice system has shifted more to be tougher on crime, the disregard for due process blinds the system and therefore “justice” is always served, which is the main purpose and objective of a criminal justice system. With that being said, it is analogous to Montresor wearing a black silk mask,

blinding him from being just towards Fortunato. Another aspect of the imagery brought out by Poe that correlates to the injustice or corrupt criminal justice system is the physical description of Fortunato. “He had on a tight-fitting parti-stripped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.” (Poe 179), at first glance this description does not seem like it holds much value, but at a closer look the physical appearance of Fortunato is described as him wearing a court jester costume. As a matter of fact, a court jester in medieval times was hired by the royal court to entertain and perform acts of humor. In accordance with a court jester, they are often portrayed as fools or foolish individuals. With that in mind, Fortunato dressed as a court jester is taken advantage of by Montresor with a series of tricks that will lead Fortunato to his punishment that is determined by Montresor. Fortunato is oblivious the whole time as he is nearing his punishment, which alludes to the idea that the court (Montresor) takes advantage of vulnerable individuals (Fortunato) by unfair consequences for certain crimes or actions.
Lastly, a correlation between The Cask of Amontillado and a corrupt criminal justice system presents itself within the setting of the story itself.

Throughout the whole story there are two main settings: a carnival and the underground. In regards to the carnival, that is the first setting of the story, “. . . Impossible! And in the middle of the carnival!” (Poe 179), a carnival is always thought of as a setting of fun, laughter, and smiles, usually showing that there are no worries in the world. In comparison to the idea of the justice system, society conditions itself to believe that the criminal justice system, made up of judges, attorneys, police officers, and etc., always try to be impartial in all situations. As a result, this gives the allusion that there are no worries, that everything is under control, and that everything is what it seems to be. Further into the story of The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor tricks Fortunato in a sequence of events leading up to his “execution” which takes place underground away from the carnival, “We came at length to the foot of the descent, and stood together upon the damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresor’s.” (Poe 180) Due to the switching of the setting, this is where Montresor’s plot to take revenge upon Fortunato begin to build. This is analogous to the criminal justice system because society is often oblivious to the real workings of the criminal justice system, missing the unjust actions taking place. This is an aspect

of the criminal justice system that those who work in it do not want many to see, and the same is applied in the case of Montresor. Montresor brings Fortunato underground away from the lively carnival and in the catacombs is where the execution of Fortunato will take place, which is out of sight of everybody at the carnival. According to Stephen J. Schulhofer, a law and criminology professor at the University of Chicago Law school, points out in an article written by himself that “. . . the life and liberty of the citizen are exposed to the largely uncontrolled discretion of individual public officials.” (Criminal Justice Discretion as a Regulatory System). The amount of discretion present in the criminal justice system is analogous to the setting of the underground catacombs in The Cask of Amontillado because the public has no control over the discretion and therefore, bias can be present in decisions when they are made, which is shown in the case of Montresor and Fortunato. To go along with that, it is in the underground catacombs where Fortunato faces his inevitable death, which is the execution that Montresor plotted since the start of the story.
Given these examples in The Cask of Amontillado, there are a plethora of examples that allude to the theme of justice. Specifically, there is the establishment of Montresor as the judge, jury, and executioner, there is the imagery used by Poe to provide mental images that represent the set-up of a criminal justice system, and lastly the setting of the story from the carnival to the underground catacombs, which points to unjust actions that are beyond the control of the public. With all of these connections in mind, one must ask himself, how does this aspect of a corrupt or unfair criminal justice system relate to the world today? The answer to that question is simple, we live among these actions taking place within our very own court system and many individuals, like Fortunato, are unaware of what is really happening until they are actually experiencing it for themselves. If that is the case, it is safe to say that nobody would want that to happen to them, so why should it happen to somebody else? Just like many instances in the real world, Fortunato could have been innocent. The narrator of the story Montresor, is an unreliable narrator since all of his actions to seek revenge on Fortunato are based on subjective factors. As a result, Fortunato is sentenced to death without the proper due process of law.