The Cask Of Amontillado Analysis

Another indirect factor that could contribute to Montresor’s vengeful act, and thus the story’s theme of revenge, is his state of mind. Some critics have analyzed the opening line of this short story and have determined that it could contribute to an insane state of mind. When the opening line states, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge,” it does not describe what the insult is. The fact that Montresor does not give a specific description of the insult leads many critics to believe that Montresor has acted irrationally in murdering Fortunato and that he is insane. Another example of Montresor’s insanity is found when he replies to Fortunato’s screams (Baraban). In the story, Montresor states, “I replied to the yells of him who clamoured. I re-echoed, I aided, I surpassed them in volume and in strength” (Poe 1616). Critics view this statement as contributing to Montresor’s unstable state of mind, and thus contributing to his act of revenge (Baraban).

However, Montresor has a characteristic that, not shown prominently, but given through little hints until the end. That secret characteristic is guilt, guilt for wanting to kill Fortunato. Some of those hints show at the carnival, down in Montresor’s catacombs, and even as Montresor is building in the wall to keep Fortunato in to die. At the carnival, Montresor calls Fortunato his ‘friend’. “It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend.” (Poe). In addition, Montresor is talking about Fortunato, with the term friend being used. Another is, “I was so pleased to see [Fortunato]...” (Poe). In this part of the story, Montresor even says himself that he was happy to see his friend, Fortunato. He shows signs of actually liking Fortunato, but for strongly believing in his family motto and arms of revenge, he feels the need to get revenge on Fortunato for what he did to Montresor. Montresor greets Fortunato kindly and with warmth, “[m]y dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day!” (Poe). Montresor

Montresor’s obsession was rooted in wrath and vengeance against a man who supposedly had done him wrong. In fact, the very first line of the story discusses his plan for revenge, which implies just how severe his obsession was. Poe writes, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (116). This insinuates that Montresor has been dealing with this repetitive thoughts and obsessive behaviors for an extended period of time and that at this point, they are interfering with his ability to live normally. Poe continues with Montresor saying, “It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong” (116). This haunting line also implies that Montresor is completely consumed with this idea of revenge that he feels as though he has no other choice but to seek retaliation. This plays into the larger idea of the relationship between evil and abnormal psychology in a variety of ways. This indicates that Montresor was motivated by “haunting, anxiety-fueled obsessive thoughts” to commit the murder of Fortunato because of his distorted perception of reality. Another example of this obsession can be seen when Montresor is discussing his intricate, pre-mediated plan for his murder. He had thought about every possible detail of his master plan, from

Vengeance and murder infects the minds of Montresor and Fortunato upon an exchange of insult in Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Cask of Amontillado”. This is the story of pure revenge after Forturano disrespects Montresor. The story follows the characters meeting up at a carnival and eventually the disguised Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs of his home by convincing him that he acquired something that could pass for Amontillado, a light Spanish sherry. Fortunato grows eager to taste this wine and to determine for Montresor whether or not it is truly Amontillado. He leads him back to the catacombs of his home and carries out his plot to bury him alive. Edgar Allan Poe writes from a mysterious first person perspective, uses colorful symbolism and situational irony to present the man's inner self, in turn revealing that revenge is fundamentally infeasible.

To begin with, one way Edgar Allan Poe shows revenge can drive a person crazy, is through foreshadowing. By using foreshadowing Poe is able to show how messed up and crazy Montresor has become. While Montresor and Fortunato are traveling inside the cave, Montresor shows him a trowel which foreshadows what he will use to kill fortunato later on: “It is this,” producing a trowel from beneath the folds of my roquelaure” (Poe 215). Instead of just using the trowel when he plans to later in his murder plan, he brings it out while walking through the cave. He does this to amuse himself because Fortunato has no idea what the purpose of him having the trowel is, but Montresor knows that is what he intends on killing him with. This really shows how he was craving this revenge so much that it has made him crazy to the point where he is laughing and amusing himself. He had no need to bring out the

All of these images of the setting and characters come together with the idea of Montresor’s premeditated demise for Fortunado. From the beginning we know that Montresor is upset with Fortuado and he is seeking revenge. With all of Montresor’s comments we see that this is not just talk but a reality. When the two men are discussing turning around due to Fortunado’s cough, Fortunado says, “I shall not die of a cough” which in reply Montresor says “true.” (Poe page 3) This foreshadows the demise of Fortunado, and what Montresor has in mind for him. Another example of this is when they discuss Montresor’s family crest, that his family moto is “Nemo me impune lacessit” (Poe page 3) which means no one attacks me without paying dearly. Along with this statement, is when he tells Fortunado that his family are of the masons, foreshadowing the way he will kill Fortunado.

Montresor is hurt from what Fortunato caused him and that is pain due to the things he has done to lead up to the events. It states “ THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat.”(Poe 1).  Montresor has hatred towards Fortunato, who caused damage inside him mentally making him want a form of revenge back at him. The mood of the story starts off with hatred, but now as Montresor and Fortunato are the catacombs causing the scene go to spooky. It says “Its walls had been lined with human remains piled to the vaults overhead in the fashion of the great catacombs of  Paris.”(Poe 5). Catacombs is a very odd place to look for wine because of what’s stored inside of it. One can see from this that Montresor and Fortunato have arrived to the catacombs which causes the mood of the story to change due to dead bodies surrounding them. Edgar Allan Poe expressed every detail and helped the readers envision the events with his mood changes.

The story begins with Montresor explaining to the reader as a narrator that a man named Fortunato has insulted and hurt him for a great deal of time. Montresor never explains what exactly Fortunato did to him, but considering how they interact with one another at the start of the story, it is very possible Poe knew about how real killers through history have been mentally disturbed in a way that warps how they view reality, such as taking great

Edgar Allan Poe portrays conflict by creating tension between Montresor and Fortunato. In the story, tension is merely only seen through the eyes of Montressor because of the animosity that he has against Fortunato for the cursing of his family's name which was one of an old and honored one. Montresor states his revenge by saying “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed my revenge.” Montresor is stating that he had been able to bear insults, but once his family's name was insulted, he was driven to seek revenge from this humility. Montresor's evil intentions to murder Fortunato come solely from Fortantos insulting demeanor. The conflict that is shared between Fortunato and Montresor is the main factor which creates the theme of revenge in this story.

For instance, Montresor says, “A moment more and I fettered him to the granite. In its surface were two iron staples, distant from each other about two feet, horizontally. From one of these depended a short chain, from the other a padlock. Throwing the links about his waist, it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it” (Poe, 7). At this point in the story, Montresor’s deceitful personality allows him to chain Fortunato inside the recess. He does not even care that he is fettering a human being inside an underground cemetery. As the story develops, Montresor’s insanity becomes more evident as he barricades Fortunato in the recess with tiers of stones. For example, Montresor says, “I laid the second tier, and the third, and the fourth” (Poe, 8). Then when Montresor was about to fit and plaster the last stone, he burned Fortunato to death. The narrator says, “I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came forth in return only a jingling of the bells” (Poe, 9). Montresor is definitely mentally unstable as he has no feeling of sorrow after burning a human to death. This is evident because Poe says that Montresor’s heart grew sick not because he just killed a person, but because of the dampness of the catacombs. Because the author portrays Montresor as such a vile and deranged human being, the reader is intrigued of how his mind

Edgar Allan Poe uses literary devices to describe and support the underlying theme of revenge. Poe uses foreshadowing in the story since you pretty much know what’s going to happen to Fortunado in the form of his heinous death by the end of the story. Throughout there is a steady change of scenery from a lively carnival to a dark

The first device Poe uses in the story “Cask of Amontillado” is mood. Poe uses mood to analyze the story to show that mankind believes in the necessity of revenge and doing justice by their own hands. One quote that supports this claim is, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 1). This quote supports the claim because this quote displays that the mood of this story is developed through word choice, dialogue, sensory details, and description. In the first sentence of the quote “A thousand injuries I had suffered” (Poe 1) the author explains in the opening sentence, it gives a justification of the actions of Fortunato. The narrator of the story, Montresor is talking about his side of the story, by telling the reader that Fortunato has “ventured upon insult”, and crossed the line. The mood of the story “Cask of Amontillado” is dark and suspenseful. The mood of the story is dark and suspenseful because the strength of Montresor hatred for Fortunato is strong. The way Montresor manipulates Fortunato builds a great deal of tension. The mood of the story is dark and suspenseful because while Montresor executing his plan of getting revenge by Fortunato, by killing him, he didn’t feel guilty and not having any mercy on Fortunato. Another quote from the passage that supports the claim is, “We had passed through long walls of piled skeletons, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs. I paused again, and this time I made bold to seize Fortunato by an arm above the elbow” (Poe 3). This quote sets up the mood of the story because the walls of the catacombs are covered with spider webs as they

People are constantly being commanded by the temptation of revenge and demolished by the aftermath of taking it. “I forced the last stone into place; I plastered it up. – For more than a half century no one has disturbed them” (Poe 8). In the story “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor is so hopelessly controlled by his desire for revenge, that he brutally murders his

Poe uses foreshadowing as a technique to emphasise the theme of revenge he has created the story around. The story has shown to have foreshadowing throughout to help the reader understand what the character Montresor has planned for Fortunato. In the story, Poe uses the detail of Montresor carrying a trowel in his pocket. A trowel is a flat blade used to spread things, or in this case spread the mortar on the bricks to enclose Fortunato. By showing that Montresor is keeping the trowel close to him shows that he is prepared to finally get his revenge on Fortunato, and put his nerves to ease. The second detail Poe uses is Montresor’s family motto. Montresor in the story mentions his family motto which is. “ Nemo me impune lacessit”. Which means, “ No one attacks me with impunity”. The family motto is used in this story to show that Montresor will not stand for anybody who punishes him in any shape or form. Somehow Fortunato has done something to wrong Montresor, and by sticking with his family motto. It is foreshadowing the idea that Montresor will do something to get his revenge. When Montresor finally has Fortunato intoxicated, Montresor decides to finally make his move. Montresor decides to lure Fortunato down into the Catacombs by using his one weakness, wine. By stating there is a wine that Montresor bought and he would Fortunato to test it leads us to believe it is a trap. Montresor then goes on and says that the wine is the catacombs. The word catacombs has a negative connotation with leads us to believe this is foreshadowing the event where Montresor makes his move to get his revenge. Foreshadowing was just one of the few ways Poe used

     In this story the character of Montresor is revealed through his own words. When he reveals he is going to punish Fortunato for merely insulting him, that he has planned the whole act of vengeance, and that he has been playing as being Fortunato’s friend, we know we are dealing with a deranged personality. His character is also revealed with references to his family. It is almost as if Poe has Montresor’s ancestors tell the reader how nicely he fits into the family tree. His legacy from his family motto “No one attacks me with impunity” and a coat of arms that depicts a serpent whose last wish before death is to poison the foot that crushed it. Does the fruit of ever fall far from the tree? Montresor is as evil as his forebears were. He shows no remorse about what he has done, even in old age. When he says, “May he rest in peace” at the end of the story, the reader gets the feeling he means, “ I hope you stay there and rot” rather than, “I hope you found joy and peace in heaven.”