Battle of Impunity
Insults often serve as a catalyst for revenge. Yet, revenge never comes without consequences. These consequences can stay in a person’s subconscious for the remainder of their life. Through the clever short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor suffers from being insulted, seeking revenge and living with guilt. Montresor is unsuccessful in punishing Fortunato with impunity.
The obsession to confess is a killer. Montresor starts the evil revenge plot with a smile on his face. “It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. 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.” Montresor believes that he will feel free and better about himself, for he will be completing his mission of impunity. With one brick remaining, “My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so.” He thinks he will feel free, but throughout his life his freedom to do otherwise stands chained in the dank vault with Fortunato. He to is dead to the world, immobile, chained to the rock of his one guilt-ridden act of aggression. The sickness he feels isn’t the dampness of the catacombs, but the first feeling of remorse. He is killing a well “respected and even feared” man. Now confessing, there is no way to change the past and his guilty conscience still remains.
Through all the trouble Montresor goes through to kill the one person he truly despises, he benefits nothing. He thinks he will be happy. He even smiles at the sight of Fortunato in the beginning. Once he completes the task, the only thing left to do is live his life leaving Fortunato behind physically and mentally. Montresor can be better off leaving Fortunato alone, but instead he takes the unchristian way out and ends Fortunato’s life. He doesn’t gain anything from doing this, except a guilty conscience and a dead body. “A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.” Montresor doesn’t gain anything positive from the revenge.
With every experience one learns a lesson. Montresor lets the insulting Fortunato go straight to his head. He over reacts and cleverly tricks Fortunato into “the catacombs of the Montresors.
Montresor, fifty years after it happened, is confessing to the murder of his foe, Fortunato. He justifies his actions by saying that Fortunato caused him a thous...
Montresor does not so much satisfy the necessity of clarifying his intention to Fortunato. Such a deed as Montresor's is mind boggling to him with the exception of as a few massive jokes; however, this trust is slaughtered by Montresor's joke. Whether Fortunato really comprehends the purpose for Montresor's awful revenge specifically, that he is constantly rebuffed for his arrogance and for insulting somebody who is equivalent or better than him—doesn't block an effective fulfillment of Montresor's plan.
Montresor, the narrator, successfully murders Fortunato, but ultimately fails when he confesses out of remorse after half a century. He tells the reader that “it is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong” (Poe 183). Montresor shows Fortunato who killed him and how he was killed, but Fortunato still does not comprehend why he was killed by Montresor (Clendenning). He wanted to kill Fortunato and not get caught for his crime either; however, he gets caught up in his mind and confesses on his deathbed after fifty years of the committed murder. G.R. Thompson points out that "Montresor, rather than having successfully taken his revenge 'with impunity ' ... has instead suffered a fifty-years ' ravage of conscience" (qtd. in Baraban). He argues that Montresor has failed to accomplish a perfectly planned murder. He buried Fortunato alive in the crypt and took the revenge that he sought, but the guilt caught up after five decades. Therefore, Montresor fails to punish Fortunato as he wanted – with
The carnival, a public event, displays Montresor’s actions and feelings towards Fortunato in a public setting. He is very cheerful and still jokes around with Fortunato as if nothing is wrong between them “It must be understood, that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good-will. 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.” (1118). During their descent into the Montresor’s family catacombs Montresor’s actions begin to show his true feelings towards Fortunato, as he gives him some Medoc even though Fortunato is already drunk. Montresor is not acting bitter towards Fortunato yet because they are not close enough to where his revenge will take place, Montresor shows false friendship in a sense by continuing to say that Luchresi can tell him if the cask of Amontillado is real or a fake to keep him going deeper into the damp catacombs. Knowing that Fortunato will demand that they continue Montresor is leading him to his death by Fortunato’s own hubris to his
In a nutshell, fate is the concept that everything is predetermined, and that human beings have no control over what happens in their future. We as people either deny fate or use it to defend ourselves against life, but in either case, consequences are often unavoidable. Take the case of Romeo, when he kills his cousin-in-law, Tybalt. Romeo, who kills vengefully kills Tybalt for slaying his friend Mercutio, cries out, “Oh I am fortune’s fool!” when he sees Tybalt dead. This line is obviously Romeo blaming fate for the fact that his sword impaled Tybalt. In this case, it is clear that all the fate blaming in the world will not save Romeo from the Prince of Verona’s doom. Romeo is thereafter banished for slaying Tybalt, getting lease from the punishment of death only because Tybalt himself was a murderer. Romeo faces the consequences of his actions and heads off to Verona, where thereafter a couple failed plots and some plague or another lead to him and Juliet dying. Romeo, despite a concrete belief in fate, ends up still dealing with the consequences of kill...
In this quote, Montresor says that must be able to Fortunato in a way that he will not be caught. He goes on to say that Fortunato has done him an injustice and has not apologized for offending him. So now, Montresor feels that revenge would be incomplete if it was carried out without victim knowing that it was him who killed him.
Romeo and Juliet is widely known to be a tragedy, but what caused the atrocity for which it is so renowned? Some may argue fate was to blame for Romeo’s and Juliet’s deaths, that the situations these young lovers faced were depicted as being out of their control. Could Romeo have refused to attend the Capulet masque? Was Romeo destined to duel the raging Tybalt? Did Romeo and Juliet truly have to kill themselves? If one considers the specific circumstances and causes of these situations, the fact that all scenarios are the result of choice rather than chance, and the notion that the characters were never left without options, only one conclusion can be determined. It was unarguably the decisions made by characters, not those made by fate, that were responsible for the tragedy in Romeo and Juliet.
The text of this story serves a good example to others who have yet to actually consider their levels of anger and how far they are willing to take their vengeful plans. Before reading this, I had never really investigated what I would do if put in a similar situation and I’m sure I’m not the only person who has never examined this topic. It also makes me curious if anyone has ever read this story and actually viewed Montresor as valid for killing Fortunato. Furthermore, it would be interesting to examine their reason for believing Montresor was not in the wrong and what influences their choice. For example, my upbringing taught me otherwise, but for the person who agrees, how were they
With Fortunado dead and buried, Montresor has won. Thanks to his deception he has the revenge he wanted for so long. There are no more insults or injuries for Montresor to tolerate. Fortunato is dead, never to be seen again. Because Montresor believes what he has done is not wrong he does not have to worry about the guilt or shame afterwards.
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.
Shakespeare utilizes his characters beliefs and superstitions in fate to add a cautioning and foreboding tone to the story. Throughout the entire play, fate dictates the actions of others and ultimately leads Romeo and Juliet to their tragic downfall.
Fate manipulates events such as dreams and visions to bring about the death of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is sent a prophetic dream by fate, telling him that, “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin his fearful date, with this night’s revels and expire the term, of a despised life closed in my breast, by some vile forfeit of untimely death.” (I. iv. 107-111) Translated into moder...
This immediate familiarity helps the reader to see inside the calculating mind of Montresor, whom we later learn is a killer. When talking about the past insults of Fortunato, he takes on a cold, determined tone: “At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled […] I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong” (Poe, 618).
Ethics serves as a vital crux of society. We learn them through our interactions with others as we progress through life. They provide a moral system for us to go by as we interact and participate among the populace. Ethics guides our decisions, define our temperament and influence our future. They establish a very basic form of order that streamlines the productivity of a society. Anywhere you look you can see the presence of ethics in various organizations and institutions. Whether it be political, lawful, medical, religious or social. At it 's very core ethic deals with protecting fundamental basic freedoms such as the right to live, avoid abusive treatment and right and right to security as well as basic human liberties such as the freedom of speech and freedom from persecution. In Badiou 's short essay on ethics “Ethics An Essay on the Understanding of Evil” he delves into his criticism of ethics and the meaning of evil.