Montresor Hyperbole

In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor is not the only character who displays an overwhelming and ultimately detrimental sense of pride. Fortunato is also a very prideful man who is willing to go to great lengths to maintain his honor and reputation. For him, it is his reputation as a fine wine expert that he must defend. Fortunato’s pride overrides his common sense and is the driving force of the deadly decisions he makes throughout the story. Montresor claims to possess a bottle of the expensive and highly regarded Amontillado wine. He tells Fortunato that he has called an expert, Luchresi, to inspect the wine. Fortunato forces Montresor to take him to the vaults because he is certain that “‘[Montresor has] been imposed upon. And as for Luchresi, he cannot

To begin with, Montresor taking revenge on Fortunato is quite evil. When Montresor trick Fortunato down to the cellar by using Fortunato’s ego and taste in wine it is very cool and calculating. In the text Montresor says, “ As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchesi. If anyone has a critical turn, it is he. He will tell me--.” (Montresor 58) This plays off of Fortunato ego saying somebody else had a better taste in wine then he did. In like manner, Montresor was very happy and excited to see Fortunato during carnival. Which is just an act to lure Fortunato to the catacombs. Montresor says in his head, “ I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation.” (Montresor57) Furthermore, Montresor offers many times for Fortunato to turn back because of the cold or of his health. The short story states, “ Come sais Montresor, we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was.” This is cruel because once Fortunato gets to the bottom of the catacombs he will never get to turn back.

Montresor is an evil person because he killed a man. In the story Montresor says ¨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 from the house.¨ (Poe, 210) Montresor did not decide to kill Fortunato in the moment. He knew that he would kill him before he did it. This is revealed in the story, when Montresor orders his servants to leave his home, so there would be no witnesses to his plan. Another example to prove this is that Montresor brought a trowel with him into catacombs so that he could seal Fortunato into the wall with bricks and the trowel is used to spread mortar onto the bricks. People

The major characteristics of the narrator and main character, Montresor, are anger, hatred, and revenge. In the story, he is angry with Fortunato because he believes that Fortunato has wronged and insulted him many

“The Cask of Amontillado” starts out with Montresor, the narrator, saying, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” Simply

When Montresor is first introduced, the reader can easily identify Montresor as an unreliable narrator based on his unreasonable need to get back at Fortunato. He begins his recollection with words of exaggeration, recalling the “thousand injuries” (Poe 179) he endured, and the insult Fortunato had “ventured upon” (Poe 179). There is no further explanation on what would warrant such resentment before he quickly transitions to his definition of revenge:

<br>The way the narrator treats his enemy is one of the clearest examples for ironic elements. When the characters meet, Montresor realises that Fortunato is afflicted with a severe cold, nevertheless he makes a point of him looking "remarkably well". Montresor acts in the most natural and friendly way towards the man object of his revenge, and even praises his "friend's" knowledge in the subject of wines. Also upon their meeting, Montresor begins a psychological manipulation of Fortunato. He claims that he needs his knowledge to ascertain that the wine he has purchased is indeed Amontillado. Furthermore, he acknowledges that Fortunato is engaged in another business (i.e.: the celebration of carnival), so he would go to Luchresi, who, one is made to believe, is a competitor of Fortunato's. To these words, Fortunato is forced by his pride to accompany Montresor to the vaults (where the Amontillado is kept), dissipate his doubts and also to prove his higher status than Luchresi as a connoisseur of wine. In fact, during their way down under in the catacombs, the twisted mind of Montresor, dares to give Fortunato the chance to go back, due to the almost unbearable dampness and foulness rampant in the vaults and Fortunato's state of health. The narrator clearly knows about the stubborn nature of Fortunato, and is

Throughout the short story, Montresor appears to be murderous and mentally insane. As Montresor continues to tell his story, the reader learns that Montresor is not only a murder and insane, but he is a narcissist as well. Montresor displays the characteristics for this to be true. When Montresor decided to take revenge on Fortunato, he was persistent in doing it himself for his own satisfaction. As his plan began to go along perfectly, he was very pleased with himself. In addition, the cause for Montresor’s revenge plan was because of an insult. The death of Fortunato was not justifiable by his actions. It was merely a prize for Montresor

Conflict: For Montresor to revenge himself for Fortunato’s insult, he has to get away with it – if Fortunato can revenge him back,

Later on the story Montresor is offended by Fortunato when the fortuned one tells him that he

Montresor’s apparent pride in his having gotten away with the murder of Fortunato and the subtle lies he implants into the story only adds to the cold-hearted man who is Montresor.

Is revenge worth the consequences? In Edgar Allan Poe's, The Cask of Amontillado the main character Montresor knows that he may be punished for his actions and goes to extreme measures to avoid being caught for what he has done to Fortunato. According to Montresor ” I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. ”This relates to life because if you do something that is wrong/bad you will probably or most likely to pay for it in the long run. Even though Montresor was not punished for what he has done he had to live with that quilt.

This careful consideration of vengeance as well as the style of execution demonstrates the power and influence of revenge on Montresor, a power that drives him till the very last act of murder.

Montresor tells the story in detail of how he leads a man, Fortunato, to his death. Montresor repeatedly expresses the need to kill Fortunato because he has done something to insult him and he must pay for it with his life. Montresor tells readers early in the story that he is going to be lying to Fortunato’s face by acting one way, but thinking about killing him the whole time. He says "I continued, as was my wont, to smile in

Montresor’s actions lend to his vengeful and manipulative nature. He lures Fortunato into the catacombs of his home to carry out his plans to kill Fortunato. In the first step of his plan, he boosts Fortunato’s ego by saying that Luchesi was almost as worthy a judge of wine as he. Then Montresor tricks Fortunato into believing that there is an