The short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edger Allan Poe, is based on Montresor taking revenge on his old friend Fortunato. The play holds many literary elements that connects to the life of the author as well. It is clear in the short story that the author placed his emotions and personal touch to the aspects of the story and the scenery. Some of the elements in the play that are detailed are; foreshadow, hyperbole, and metaphor. The death of Fortunato is foreshadowed in his eagerness to get the wine and in his cough. The latter matches with Poe’s life with the deaths of both his mother and wife to pneumonia. Furthermore, hyperbole comes in as the narrator speaks about the thousand insults that Fortunato has pronounced over him. This as well can be compared to Poe, as he was an editor during his time and may have been criticized for his work also. Moreover, metaphor is used in stating the drunken look that Fortunato is depicted as having during the trip. This may be a comparison to the drunkenness of Poe himself. Every author places their own experiences into their work to make it more believable, or to give more of a draw to the audience. The short story has multiple areas were foreshadowing is used to depict the imminent demise …show more content…
The narrator tell us “THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (Poe 739). The reader is never told exactly what happened that pushed the narrator to take revenge on Fortunato, however, the reader does know that it’s enough to justify killing him. The author Poe was a critic and a writer of stories during his time. This outburst from the narrator wanting revenge for insults may be in connection to the authors own judgement and insults received due to his writing or his evaluations of others
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” is a short psychological thriller. The murder of Fortunato haunts Montresor so greatly that he feels the compulsion to tell the story some fifty years after the fact. He appears to be in the late stages of life desperately attempting to remove the stain of murder from his mind. That it is still so fresh and rich in specifics is proof that it has plagued him, “Perhaps the most chilling aspect of reading Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ for the first time is not the gruesome tale that Montresor relates, but the sudden, unpredictable, understated revelation that the murder, recounted in its every lurid detail, occurred not yesterday or last week, but a full fifty years prior to the telling” (DiSanza).
Vengeance and pride are fundamentally important to this short story. From the inception of the tale it is clear that the narrator is a proud, vindictive man; opening with, “the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge,” the narrator immediately alerts the reader to the dark aspects of his own character. Because “insult” and not “the thousand injuries” caused the narrator to “vow” revenge, the reader can infer Montresor is prideful because, although he already had conflict with Fortunato, insult was what made the tense situation unbearable for Montresor––so much so that he vowed to take action. Use of the word “vow” is significant because it indicates that the grievance was meaningful in the mind of Montresor, allowing for the reader to more easily identify with the actions to be revealed throughout the course of the story; if the reader believes that Montresor was provoked in a profound way, ...
Hoping to obtain revenge, Montresor, the narrator, lures Fortunato, one of his friends, into the depths of his catacombs to be murdered. Montresor says, "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge"(149). This is the first line in the story, and this is why Montresor seeks revenge. There is no explanation of the insults that Montresor received, so the reader may infer that Montresor is just lying. The insults that were received could possibly be just outdoing in the business arena. Montresor might be using that excuse for his desire to kill Fortunato, because he may be killing Fortunato out of jealousy. Montresor is likely telling this story to a family member, friend, or his doctor while lying on his deathbed. Montresor says, "…your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter."(150). Montresor just admitted that he knows Fortunato is better than he. Montresor may have been under the influence of jealousy. Redd 4 There are different theories to ...
In the story "The Cask of Amontillado", Edgar Allen Poe tells the story of Montresor and Fortunato. This story has a much lighter mood to it, but from the beginning there is some tension between Fortunato and Montresor. The story its self has a
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)
The thing that gives a hint of what could have been and insult is when Fortunato ask, “I forget your arms” (Poe 167). This is an insult to his family coat of arms saying it is not important enough for him to remember. The arm is “A huge foot d’or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel”(Poe 167). Fortunato also adds to this “And the motto?” (Poe 167) The motto helps us understand why he kills Fortunato. The motto is “Nemo me impune lacessit” (Poe 167). this translates to no one provokes me with impunity. As Patrick White
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado” is a literary classic for many reasons. The story is complex and full of all kinds of irony. As the reader gets deeper into the story, the relationship between the main characters becomes more and more ambiguous. The story revolves around a revenge, but the reader never gets to know what happened between the two men to warrant a murder as gruesome as this. The story includes several examples of dramatic and verbal irony.
Fortunato displays doubt that Montresor can afford a fine wine, saying, "Amontillado, A pipe? Impossible! And in the middle of the carnival!" (Poe). This shows that Fortunato has a low opinion on Montresor’s wealth by insulting him in the middle of carnival. Poe also makes Fortunato out to be a dullard. Fortunato dismisses Luchresi’s ability to judge wine: "Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry.” (Poe). Despite Fortunato’s claims Amontillado is in fact a Sherry. Fortunato’s constant dismissal of Montresor probably hurts his pride more because of Fortunato’s stupidity. Fortunato’s repeated teasing of Montresor shows the “thousand injuries” that SparkNotes claims were not included were indeed in the story. (Poe). By telling the reader that Fortunato had no prior transgressions towards Montresor, SparkNotes misinforms students about the themes of the story. One of the main themes of the story is how revenge is less satisfying than the idea of it. By giving Fortunato a fatal flaw, Poe shows us that revenge is sickening even if the person exacting retribution feels like the aggressor deserves
“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed my revenge.” (1). Now, it doesn’t say in the story how bad the insult was, but even still murder doesn’t quite fit the crime. Montressor planned step by step the murder of a once close friend just because he insulted him. Not only did he kill Fortunato though, it was a very violent death he had planned. He led him away from the carnival (while he was sick) and took him down to the damp, moldy cellar (again, he was sick) where he chained him up and built a wall sealing him in. This means that if he didn’t suffocate, he would have likely died of dehydration, and the illness would have made it so much more painful. If that doesn’t spell out vengeful then think about this, Fortunato still thought of Montressor as a friend up until this point. As painful as it is to be harmed by someone you dislike or don’t know, to be taken advantage of and harmed by a close, trusted friend is one of the worst
Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are credited for having horror-filled endings. Usually darkness is considered to be a good representative of evil, so the setting in “The Cask of Amontillado” is at night-time. This story deals with the jealousy, revenge and, more importantly, wounded family honor. A man named Montresor, whose name is not discovered till the end of story, is seeking vengeance on Fortunato, who has irreparably insulted him. The very first sentence: “THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge”, supports the theme of revenge (Poe 161). This theme also suggests that Fortunato had aggrieved Montresor thousands of times, but whenever he insults Montresor and his family, he decides that there needs to be avenge and, which is the murder of a Fortunato. Montresor believes “he is out to get justice by baiting Fortunato” (Whatley 56). Hence, Whatley states “there is no remorse in Montresor’s heart when he finally confesses after fifty years”. So, for the sake of his family honor and self-respect, he vowed to take revenge by killing Fortunato.
Poe’s first-person narration style in “The Cask of Amontillado” allows the reader to experience the story from a different level and the ability to look at the story from a different light. An unusual perspective. From the mind of a killer, the narrator and main character making him familiar with the reader. Poe focuses more of the thoughts and emotions of the main character rather than physical attributes of Montresor which made for a more intimately disturbing story for the reader.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of greatest American authors and poets. He is well-known as a master of using irony in his story. “The Cask of Amontillado” is a horror story about revenge of Montresor upon Fortunato. Fortunato believes Montresor is his good friend, but he ends up with being chained and walled in to the catacombs. There are three types of irony used in this short story: verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony. Using these ironies, Poe wants the readers to understand about Montresor’s “friendship” with Fortunato.
Edgar Allen Poe’s tale of murder and revenge, “The Cask of Amontillado”, offers a unique perspective into the mind of a deranged murderer. The effectiveness of the story is largely due to its first person point of view, which allows the reader a deeper involvement into the thoughts and motivations of the protagonist, Montresor. The first person narration results in an unbalanced viewpoint on the central conflict of the story, man versus man, because the reader knows very little about the thoughts of the antagonist, Fortunato. The setting of “The Cask of Amontillado”, in the dark catacombs of Montresor’s wine cellar, contributes to the story’s theme that some people will go to great lengths to fanatically defend their honor.
Edgar Allan Poe is a famous writer in writing detective stories and horror stories. One of his horror stories, “The Cask of Amontillado” was talking about how a man took his revenge to his friend. However, to look deeply in this story, I found that this story was not just simply a horror tale about how a man gets his revenge in the safest way. Instead, it also demonstrates much irony in several areas: the title, the event, the season, the costume, the environment, the characters’ personalities, a man’s dignity and cockiness and at the end, the public order. he are
The major characteristics of the narrator and main character, Montresor, are anger, hatred, and revenge. In the story, he is angry with Fortunato because he believes that Fortunato has wronged and insulted him many times by saying, “thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could…he ventured upon insult…” (Poe). In addition, Montresor’s hatred for Fortunato goes so far that he believes he must kill Fortunato. He mentions this in the story as, “[y]ou, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat” (Poe). He seems to say that his soul is made of hatred and goes on to say he must give Fortunato the utmost punishment: death. Montresor even shows traits of revenge when he says, “…but when [Fortunato] ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” and “...I would be avenged…” (Poe). He is saying that he will get revenge on Fortunato, whom he is angry with and hates for being insulted by.