Is revenge always the best option? In the stories The Utterly Perfect Murder and The Cask of Amontillado, revenge is the goal and the best option for the main characters. These characters Doug from The Utterly Perfect Murder and Montresor from The Cask of Amontillado are both plotting to get revenge on their friends. Doug and Montresor feel that they have been treated wrong by their friends. They have similar reasons about why they must get revenge but their endings are very different. Doug was bullied by a friend named Ralph when he was 12 years old and could not let go of the scars and pain he still had at an older age. On his 48th birthday, he decided that he would travel to his childhood home and kill his friend Ralph for bullying him. On his way there, he thought of everything mean thing that Ralph had done to him when he was a child. He remembered Ralph pushing him in the mud, never coming to his house to ask him to play, which he did for Ralph, and convincing him to trade the glove his brother gave him for a statue. All these things made Doug mad enough to want to go through with killing Ralph. …show more content…
Montresor wanted revenge in a way that no one would know. During a time when everyone normally celebrates, Montresor decided to kill Fortunato when he saw him at the carnival in Italy. He lured Fortunato into the catacomb vault by telling him there was Amontillado wine for him to drink. Fortuna believed him and followed him into the vault. Once he got to the vault and saw there was not wine, Montresor pushed him into a hole in the wall. Next Montresor starting closing the hole up with bricks. As he was finishing, Fortunato screamed for him to stop. Montresor continued then walked away leaving him to
What kind of stories have you read? Have you read of any that in a way have similarities and differences with one another? The two short stories in this essay are "the cask of amontillado" and "the killings". These short stories are ironically the same but with different perspectives. Both authors have a different meaning for why they wrote the stories. One of the similarities are that both stories have to do with killing someone. In "the cask of amontillado the narrator kills due to madness an the narrator in "the killings kills to avenge his sons death. Another difference is that after Montessor kills his "friend", he feels no remorse or guilt and Matt fowler from "the killings" feels empty and remorse after the killing.
Montresor must trick and manipulate Fortunato to accomplish his goal of revenge. He tells Fortunato the reason he is at the ...
After reading the stories “The Most Dangerous Games” and “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Most Dangerous games” is my treasured of the two stories. The reason why I like “ The Most Dangerous Games” as a result the story is about hunting and I love to hunt. For example on the first day of the hunt for Rainsford, Rainsford tried to make a hard to follow him. After that he made a log and tied it to gather and then he put some of the strings over a branch and hid behind a log less than one hundred feet away. Next traps Rainsford dug next to the Quicksand and he put long like stakes pear in the bottom of the pothole and then climb a tree not far away. His plan didn’t direct the way he intended . He had retrieved a couple of the mongrel instead
It is constantly seen that people take revenge on each other in the real world so it comes to no surprise that Montresor is taking revenge on Fortunato. Specifically in this story Montresor will feel better if he “not only punish but punish with impunity” (108 Poe). But further on what I found to even more realistic was that this wasn’t normal revenge, this was pure mastermind torture. Montresor knew that Fortunato was sick with Montresor saying “…but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted”(109 Poe) regarding that he didn’t want Fortunato to come down to his vaults, but Montresor true intentions were wanting Fortunato to fight Montresor request of not coming, and it worked. Montresor also knew how well Fortunato was at differencing wine “I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter” (109 Poe). By Montresor exploiting Fortunato’s sickness and skill of wines, Montresor knew that he could get Fortunato in the vaults where he could execute his revenge. At a first glance this may not seem lifelike because there’s an assumption to be made that people aren’t this immoral. But the truth is that the revenge that Montresor conducted is seen constantly in our culture. It’s undeniably real of the monstrosity that was made by Montresor when comparing it to the wicked
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
While revenge may feel sweet at times, in most cases it is destructive to yourself and those around you. The article “Revenge:Will You Feel Better?” makes one contemplate this, and draws the question “is revenge really worth it?” Well, in the article, Karyn Hall suggests that “Revenge can be a strong urge, but you may not feel better if you act on it.” In fact, in a study performed by Kevin Carlsmith showed that “...the students that got revenge reported feeling worse than those who didn't…” With this, one may see that revenge is pointless, and in most cases leaves you feeling worse than the people you performed it
The story begins in a small town in America. The Fowler family is faced with the burden, frustration and pain of having to bury their twenty-one year old son, Frank. The inward struggle faced by Matt Fowler, his wife, and family drives him to murder Richard Strout, Frank's killer, in order to avenge his son's murder and bring peace to himself and his family. Matt faced a life-time struggle to be a good father and protect his children from danger throughout their childhood. Dubus describes Matt's inner ...
In his article “On Memory Forgetting, and Complicity in “the Cask of Amontillado”” Raymond DiSanza suggests that an act of wrongdoing is always at the heart of good horror stories. (194) DiSanza’s article on “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe describes Poe’s writing in a way I didn’t think of myself. DiSanza finds Poe’s language in this story to “taste like amontillado: smooth, slightly sweet, and appropriately chilled”. (DiSanza 195) Throughout his article he mostly talks about what possibly could have been Montresor’s motive to kill Fortunato? And why did Montresor wait fifty years to tell the story?
Montresor pulls out his sword as he was building the wall to trap Fortunato. For a brief second Montresor thought about killing Fortunato instantly. Instead he makes him suffer, “Unsheathing my rapier, I began to grope with it about the recess; but the thought of an instant reassured me. I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the fabric of the catacombs and felt satisfied. I reproached the wall; I replied to the yells of him who clamored.” Montresor gets enlightenment while Fortunato suffers, which proves him to be
While Montresor figures out his plan to seek revenge, he says “A wrong is undressed when retribution overtakes its redresser” (1). The meaning of redresser is an error, fault, or evil. This means Montresor wants to get revenge for what he thinks Fortunato has done to him. Montresor thinks if he is going to get revenge he has to pull it off. So, Montresor made sure Fortunato was drunk on the last day before fasting and made sure no one was in the house with his mysterious plan. From this point of the story, Montresor is soon going to kill Fortunato, but Montresor never tells
Carefully, cautiously the Montresor plotted precisely how he would exact revenge upon Fortunato. Much time and great energy was devoted to this plan, selecting a time that would be best: during carnival when the town would be celebratory, his servants apt to run off and join the celebration, when the two could silently disappear without notice or question. No detail is forgotten; he allows for no deterrents. He follows through with such a confidence that never does he stumble or hesitate in carrying out his plan. The Montresor indicates that he had never given. To continue with this ploy, he even goes so far as to express false concern for Fortunato as they pass through the catacombs. Blaming the nitre and damp, the Montresor suggests that they turn back as not to compromise Fortunato’s ill health, though he has no intent of doing so. Never once until the very end did Fortunato have cause to suspect that there were any foul plans afoot.
When they arrive at the Montresor estate, Montresor leads Fortunato down the stairs into the catacombs. Down here is where the Amontillado Fortunato is going to taste and where the revenge of Montresor is going to take place. As he get closer and closer, the narrator opens up more and more to how he is going to kill his "friend". It sound like it is a premeditated murder. Montresor seems so inconspicuous that he acts like he cares about Fortunato which is still a part of his plan.
Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado" is similar to the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" in that his obsession with consuming the soul of Fortunato influences his every action. However, it is with Fortunato himself that he is obsessed. He feeds off of Fortunato's pain, unlike the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" who's obsession is with destroying a menacing inanimate object. Montresor's entire conspiracy is focused around making Fortunato suffer, and for him to know just who is causing this suffering. This is why he goes to such lengths to put together this intricate strategy. It could have been so much easier to kill Fortunato in some easier, quicker way. Instead, he dedicates himself to torturing Fortunato. He creates a plan that leads Fortunato into the depths of the catacombs beneath his home, and kills him in an excruciating manner.
Revenge is such an enormous part of a being human. It is something that no matter how much you try to avoid part of you will persistently lust for it. When you are hurt in any way your natural instinct will always tell you to make the one who hurt you feel just as bad if not worse as how you felt. It is such a natural and powerful feeling, that when revenge is incorporated into a story it makes it so much stronger. Revenge will make you see so many more sides of characters and make them seem much more complex. Revenge can give fictional characters a more human quality. That is why so many writers use it as their theme.
Taking revenge is a bitter sweet thing. I have always thought that people should always get what they desire, whether it be a grade, a smile and hug or in some cases, revenge. When I was in high school there seemed to be someone always trying to get me in trouble, they would say things that wouldn’t be true or do things to make me look bad. The fact that I never seemed to do anything to them would make me mad and wonder what I could do to get them back. Revenge would usually come in some sort of verbal put down or I would try to physically hurt them. It always seemed when I would get the revenge right away I would feel really good but as I thought about what I did, and what they did to me I would always feel guilty or wish I would have never done anything to them in return.