One rainy, spring afternoon I noticed a flashing light and a loud, booming sound outside my bedroom window. I quickly grabbed my raincoat and rushed outside to see what was going on and before I knew it, blinding lights beamed me up inside a strange object. I had never seen anything like it and then it dawned on me that I must be inside a spaceship! Strange-looking, blue creatures appeared before me and began asking questions about human feeling and emotion. They seemed to be harmless, yet curious as to what I could tell them about revenge. So I began by saying, revenge is the act of inflicting hurt or harm on someone in hopes of getting even with them for wronging somebody else. Revenge is spiteful and often people retaliate because of anger or hatred. Humans have a tendency to want to be hateful to those who have wronged us. Revenge is done for a number of reasons: someone hurt you or someone you love, sometimes it is done to be malicious, and other times because somebody took advantage of you. There are three different ways to explain the idea of revenge. Through a short story, poem, and a play, I will attempt to explain revenge. The short story is “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, the poem is “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, and the play is “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare. All of these writings encompass this broad idea of revenge, yet at the same time they show different sides of revenge and the circumstances behind their actions.
“The Cask of Amontillado” features revenge and secret murder as a way to avoid using legal means for justice. Law is nowhere on Montresor’s radar screen. Fortunato’s constant insults fuels Montresor’s hate so he names himself judge, jury, and executioner of Fortunato. It is obvious...
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Works Cited
Carey, Benedict. "Payback Time: Why Revenge Tastes So Sweet." The New York Times, 27 July 2004. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .
Cummings, Michael J. "My Last Duchess." Cummings Study Guides. N.p., June 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. .
Mays, Kelly J. “The Cask of Amontillado”. 11th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2013. 165-171. Print.
Mays, Kelly J. “Hamlet”. 11th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2013. 1709-1804. Print.
Mays, Kelly J. “My Last Duchess”. 11th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2013. 1334. Print.
Price, Michael. "Revenge and the people who seek it." N.p., 2009. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .
White, Patrick. "The Cask of Amontillado": A Case for the Defense." Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 26, no. 4, Fall89, p. 550. EBSCOhost,
Baraban, Elena V. "The Motive for Murder in 'The Cask of Amontillado'." Rocky Mountain Review 58.2 (Fall 2004): 47-62. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Vol. 111. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 7 Dec. 2010.
A main theme presented in “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is that Montresor shows obsession with the murder of fortunato. This is exemplified by Montresor’s precise planning, carefulness and slowness of speed in the process.
The Cask of Amontillado is a short tale of revenge, written by Edgar Allan Poe. The two main characters in the story are Montresor, who is the murderer, and Fortunato who plays a wine connoisseur and the victim. In this dark story, we can see a lot of irony, hate and revenge coming from the main character who has been planning this all along. In this essay I will analyze, examples of irony and foreshadowing used by the writer, symbols and themes, among other things. (Hasanbelliu)
Evil exists naturally in the world, and there are many acts that are considered evil. As a result, evil is often a theme in literature. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” by William Shakespeare, and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe each rely heavily on evil to portray a message. Out of all of the evil acts that exist, exacting revenge is the evilest act that a person can make, for a person’s rash decision to exact revenge will ruin their sense of morality. The characters of Hamlet and Laertes in “Hamlet” each commit terrible acts of revenge, as does Montresor in “The Cask of Amontillado.”
The Cask of Amontillado is an eloquent story narrated from the murderer’s point of view. Montressor seeks revenge against Fortunato for numerous insults the reader can only imagine. In order to determine the severity of the apparent injustices, Fortunato himself must be understood. Montressor describes him as being “rich, respected, admired, [and] beloved,” as well as “a man to be … feared” (Poe 274-276). Fortunato was a flawed individual, however. His greatest imperfection was his love for wine. Fortunato’s “connoisseurship” (274) of wine resulted in his intoxicated state throughout the short story. His physical and mental capacities were impaired by his drunkenness, and as a result, he was unable to resist Montressor’s lure into the catacombs.
may, charles. "The Cask of Amontillado." Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition . (2007)
“The Cask of Amontillado” is a dark piece, much like other works of Edgar Allan Poe, and features the classic unreliable narrator, identified by himself only as Montresor. This sinister central character is a cold ruthless killer that is particularly fearsome because he views murder as a necessity and kills without remorse. Montresor is a character who personifies wickedness. Poe uses this character and his morally wrong thoughts and actions to help the reader identify with aspects of the extreme personage, allowing them to examine the less savory aspects of their own. The character of Montresor detailing the glorious murder he committed is a means of communicating to the reader that vengeance and pride are moral motivators that lead to treacherous deeds and dark thoughts.
In “The Cask of Amontillado”, the combination of the carnival and the catacomb settings contribute to the themes of revenge, and deception which the protagonist takes responsibility in. Because the story takes place during the carnival, the protagonist, Montressor, has an easier time plotting against Fortunato:
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.
Baraban, Elena V. “The Motive for Murder in ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ by Edgar Allan Poe.” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature. 58.2 (2004): 47-62. JSTOR. Web. 25 October 2011.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature. Ed. Wayne Franklin, Philip F. Gurpa, Arnold Krupat. New York: Norton, 2007. 1612-1613, 1616. Print.
2. Dedmond, Francis " The Cask of Amontillado and the war of Literati, " Modern Language Quarterly; June 54, vol 15, issue2, p137, 10p.
The Cask of Amontillado, one of Edgar Allen Poe’s most celebrated works, paints a very sinister and dark tale of revenge. It is riddled with symbolism of what is in store for Fortunato who has betrayed Montresor in what Montresor perceives to warrant a grievous end. Throughout their the interaction, there are subtleties in which one might think there is a way out, but ultimately greed takes over which leads to Fortunato 's undoing.
My personal experience with revenge isn’t much, and it concerns little things. Revenge can simply be when a person draws on your book, and in spite you would draw on their book as well. It might as well occur in a game, for example my friend plays a lot of game online and this game is to simply ‘kill’ other opponents. Once, her character got attacked by another opponent but she was not prepared for the attack and she lost. Because of this, she was angry and wanted to seek revenge. She then got all her other friends to ‘gang’ up and attack the opponent. Since it wasn’t a very fair battle, the opponent lost. This act might seem childish and trivial, but this is the act of revenge.