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Insanity In Montresor's Death Of Fortunato

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A second example of Montresor’s calculated insanity is when he presents Fortunato with the tool of his demise. While going through the catacombs, Fortunato’s “eyes flashed with a fierce light. He laughed and threw the bottle [of De Grave] upwards with a gesticulation that [Montresor] did not understand” (229). When Fortunato recognizes Montresor’s confusion, he mocks Montresor’s status, stating Montresor is “not of the brotherhood” (229). Fortunato is referring to the Freemasons, a very old and prestigious group of men which Montresor has clearly not been invited to join. Montresor then claims to be a member of the masons, to which Fortunato replies with indignation. As a sign of the masons, Montresor then produces “a trowel from beneath …show more content…

Montresor, wanting to devote all his attention to Fortunato’s despair, stops his task of immurement and basks in the desperate sounds from within the niche. Once finished with the seventh tier, Montresor again pauses and shines the light of the flambeaux towards his victim, and is met with “[a] succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, [which] seemed to thrust [Montresor] violently back” (230). For a moment Montresor has a taste of fear himself, worried Fortunato has freed himself. He reassures himself Fortunato is still secure in his eternal prison, and then, as he tells us he, “reapproached the wall; [he] replied to the yells of him who clamoured. [He] re-echoed, [he] aided, [he] surpassed them in volume and in strength. [He] did this, and the clamourer grew still” (230). Montresor, as mad as he is, “is fully aware of the horrors of enclosure and enjoys them, after having planned to make them as terrifying as possible” (Sova 43). Montresor completely immerses himself in the pain of Fortunato’s immolation, enjoying every second of the revenge he has been plotting for so …show more content…

Insanity does not mean someone is a babbling idiot incapable of coherent thought, but there is a “’reasonableness in lunacy’, that [the] thoughts [of the insane] are coherent and ought to be heeded” (Porter 160). Montresor’s excruciatingly detailed plan for Fortunato’s fate demonstrates this. According to J. Clemans in Irresistible Impulses: Edgar Allan Poe And The Insanity Defense, “Poe’s familiarity with the scientific/medical accounts of insanity of his day has been well established” (626). Edgar Allan Poe’s own thoughts on insanity can be viewed in his response to a murder trail which took place in 1840, in which James Wood was acquitted on grounds of insanity of murdering his own daughter. Poe’s thoughts are

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