Psychoanalysis of “The Cask of Amontillado”
Edgar Allan Poe is known for his murderous stories. All of them are psychoanalyses of his life. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor struggles with his ego and superego just as Poe did throughout his life. The story starts off with the murderer telling what he did with satisfaction. The murderer’s name is Montresor, and he has a brilliant, devious plan to murder Fortunato. He tells his plan step by step of how he commits this dexterous murder. How far will someone go to seek revenge?
“The Cask of Amontillado” is a good psychoanalysis of Edgar Allan Poe himself. E. L. Doctorow states that Edgar Allan Poe’s life was an “unremitting disaster. He was orphaned when he was only two, married to his thirteen
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His superego is telling him all the things that could go wrong, but his ego is telling Montresor to go through with getting revenge by murdering Fortunato. Kevin J. Hayes states in his book The Annotated Poe, that the motivation for Montresor to murder Fortunato was Poe’s own desire to get revenge on a former friend, Thomas Dunn English (Hayes 351). Montresor, like Edgar Allan Poe, felt like he has been wronged and needed to punish that person. Fortunato shows up wearing a motley, similar to a joker’s attire. Scott Peoples says in the book “Social and psychological Disorder in the Works of Edgar Allan Poe” that his belief is that Montresor is committing this murder out of an act of jealousy. Also, Montresor has created an enemy to place all of his disappointments and failures upon (40). According to Montresor it is accurate because the joke is on Fortunato. Fortunato does not have a clue what is about to happen to him in the catacombs. He thinks he is just showing Montresor the difference between Spanish sherry and Amontillado; he is too drunk to even consider that this is a death trap. After seeing Fortunato’s attire, Montresor decides to go ahead with the murder plan. Montresor is dressed in all black and fits the attire of the carnival, but his clothes have another meaning. Criminals dress in black to blend in with the night. To avoid the victim’s …show more content…
He really means that he could not believe that he had just buried an innocent man alive in the catacombs, and when he heard the bells he had wished that he would not have committed a vicious murder. Montresor feels regret and maybe wishes that he did not commit murder or he thinks that he should be the one who is dead and not Fortunato. This is called displacement, where you want to take something horrible that you did and replace with something
Revenge is the opportunity to retaliate or gain satisfaction for a real or perceived slight ("revenge"). In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor, the narrator, is out for revenge. Montressor seeks revenge against Fortunato and thinks he has developed the perfect plan for “revenge with impunity” (Baym). Montresor never tells the reader why he feels Fortunato deserves punishment. He only says that Fortunato causes him “a thousand injuries”until “[venturing] upon insult” (Baym ?). As a result, Montresor plans to bury Fortunato alive.
...t makes a point to show that Montresor feels that if Fortunato discovers his act of vengeance, he is just as bad as Fortunato. The narrator takes a similar approach in stating how he is calm in recounting the story of how he went about murdering the old man, and how “Whenever (the eye) fell upon (him), (His) blood ran cold; and so by degrees –very gradually- (he) made up (his) mind to take the life of the old man, and this rid (himself) of the eye forever.” (Kirszner & Mandell 331) By stating why the narrator feels the eye has wronged him, he is trying to provide a good reason behind ending the life of an innocent old man. Both of these men provide constant reassurance to not only themselves, but also the reader, that the acts they are committing are done in a way that gives each of them a clear conscious and ability to accept what was done as the right thing to do.
Have you ever met someone so clever, determined, and cruel to leave a man to die over an insult? Montresor is the perfect example of these character traits. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor uses all of these character traits to get revenge on Fortunado for insulting his family name. Montresor’s clever planning, determination for revenge, and cruel murder are the perfect combination for his unequaled revenge.
In Edgar Allen Poe’s story The Cask of Amontillado the main character Montresor tricks his friend Fortunato into his catacombs and buries him alive. Edgar Allen Poe’s character commits this deed out of a need for revenge because of some hurt that was committed against him. Poe conveys this need for revenge through his attention to the small details within his story.
Throughout the story, Montresor does not justify his reasons for committing murder. He does not disclose anything about the “thousand injuries” (250) done to him by Fortunato, nor does he even reveal the details of the supposed injuries that drove him to vow revenge. Montresor’s family motto, “nemo me impune lacessit” which means “no one insults me with impunity” (252), indicate that Montresor only killed Fortunato to protect his family’s
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.
Throughout this short story, Poe uses details and the character's true emotions create the eerie mood. “I continued, as was my won't, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation.” In the beginning of this short story, Montresor states how he plans to kill Fortunato. His smile was not genuine or sincere. He states how Fortunato did not realize or see through his sinister
Edgar Allan Poe has a style that is dark and morbid. His tone is very gloomy and obscure. The tone of “The Cask of Amontillado” is almost tame compared to the tone of “The Black Cat”, his other work we covered. The tone of that work is almost maddening. “The Cask of Amontillado” tone is very sinister and methodic. Whereas “The Black Cat”, has a pulse to a cadence and rhythm though no clear pattern is established. Poe’s style of writing seems so personal, as a reader I had to remind myself this was fiction. His first-person style of writing is so detailed and intricate it is very easy to become invested in the world he creates. “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Black Cat” both have themes of revenge where the supposed victim is untimely
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?
Edgar Allan Poe is known for his many works that are dark and mysterious. He became known as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe had a dark, troubled life growing up. Both his biological parents died when he was a young boy and was separated from his siblings when another family adopted him. His foster father was in the tobacco industry, but Poe did not want to be involved in that business. He wanted to write. He went to college with very little money. He was so embarrassed by his poverty that he came back home, only to find that his fiancée got engaged to someone else in his absence. He left again, before finding out that the only mother he had ever known was dying of tuberculosis. By the time he returned she had already been buried. Allan, his foster father, helped Poe get into the United States Military Academy at West Point. Allan remarried and did not invite Poe. Poe was angry and wrote Allan detailing all the wrongs Allan had committed against him and threatened to get himself kicked out of the academy. Poe’s wife got tuberculosis, which had already taken the lives of his mother, brother, and foster mother.Because Poe had such a dark, difficult life, he used his poems to reflect his life.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. Mankato, MN : The Creative Company, 2008. Print.
...for the setting of the story, but more importantly serves as a symbol of Fortunato's foolishness. He is the only one who does not know of Montresor's plans, and for that reason Montresor is able to make a fool out of him. The last symbol is the mentioning of the bells. If the reader has read other works of Poe it is obvious that the bells relate to premature burial. This is how the story ends, with the ringing of the bells.
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.
You were not to be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain (Poe 332)”. This revels Montresor notices that Fortunato is not able to tell Amontillado from Sherry as he is a great wine-lover. When Montresor is coughing, Fortunato is trying to convince him to leave: “Come,” I said with decision, “ we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was”. This shows jealousy and kindness of Montresor against Fortunato at the same time that is quite sarcastic. From this perspective, Montresor envious all of the things that Fortunato has and who is not reconciled to someone surpass him in the status. He mistakenly feels that this is the injury created by Fortunato resulting in his revenge. Therefore, he blame on Fortunato for all fault that he should eradicate him as soon as possible before he become a threatening when it is too late to take any action. Additionally, he does not even regret his choice and believes everything he does is right. This is because he tries so hard to makes an effort to draw Fortunato to his trap and put down his vigilance simultaneously by
Poe starts out with a man, by the name of Montresor, wanting revenge on another man, named Fortunato. Most of the story takes place deep in the Montresor family catacombs. As Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs, he chains Fortunato up to a small hole in a wall, bricks it over, and leaves Fortunato to die. Even through the traits of anger, hatred, and revenge, as the story progresses on, Montresor, the main character in “The Cask of Amontillado”, starts to show signs of feeling guilty for wanting to murder Fortunato.