Edgar Alan Poe's The Cask of Amontillando

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As one of the greatest German philosophers, Friedrich Nietzsche, said, “It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.” In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor mentions in the beginning of the story, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato” and that he is suffering because of these injuries. Montresor does not clarify what these injuries are. These injuries might be related to the fact that Fortunato thinks that nobody is a wine connoisseur who knows everything except himself and this might be insulting Montresor indirectly. Because of this, Montresor thinks about taking revenge to make Fortunato pay for these injuries, but not any kind of revenge; he wants to take revenge with impunity. In fact, Montresor does not want to get caught so he would not have to face other injuries and get punished because of Fortunato. Montresor exploits Fortunato’s vanity as a wine connoisseur as a foible to lure Fortunato to his death, so Montresor would make Fortunato pay for his injuries and get his pride back which is unjustified act in a certain sense.

To begin with, Montresor does not get back at Fortunato immediately but he waits for the opportunity to get his revenge. Montresor is really calm, and he keeps his friendship with Fortunato. Also, he smiles at him, hiding his anger inside. Montresor has his plan already to kill Fortunato but he does not find an opportunity. Finally Montresor finds this opportunity in a carnival where everybody in the city is partying and Fortunato sways while he is drunk. Montresor uses a really smart way to lure Fortunato to come with him to his house underground store which is like catacombs where he keeps his wine and where...

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...tunato is drunk and nobody is going to miss him because everybody is busy partying. Additionally, Montresor enjoys his revenge by giving Fortunato more than one chance do go back while they were walking down to the catacombs by telling him that the mold will affect your cough and they should go back. However, Fortunato’s vanity and excitement about wine tasting make him stay and continue his way to the catacombs. At the end of that revenge journey Montresor reveals that this happened fifty years ago. Actually, the reader cannot tell if it was a boast or confession and if he really feels good about what he did considering that he kept thinking about it for fifty years.

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar. The Cask of Amontillado. Mankato: Creative education, 2008. Web.

Stambaugh, Joan. The Problem of Time in Nietzsche. Michigan: Bucknell University Press, 1987. 97.Web.

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