"The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe
Introduction
I choose "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe, for a few reasons. First, Poe was a superb technician and thought quite carefully about how to use various literary techniques. Next would be that the story is short and easily readable and understandable. Edgar Allen Poe became we know about his writing process that was deliberately and self-consciously concerned with the writing technique. He carefully planned his work and thought about how each part should be written to achieve a particular effect.
Narrator We have a first-person narrator named Montresor that tells us about himself and shows how reliable and especially shows us the way he vindictiveness
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In the unnamed city, where everyone was dressed in costumes. The setting quickly changes from the festival’s activities to the damp, dark, and skeleton-filled under the Montressor 's home. This which helps to establish the sinister atmosphere of the story. The “The Cask of Amontillado” is told in the first person by the narrator Montresor which was mainly in a narrator’s monolog. The dialogue was between the Montresor and Fortunato. When Fortunato was introduced, he becomes symbolically dressed as the fool during the fair and then becomes one as the Montresor leads the Fortunato to his …show more content…
Then in the instance of Montresor’s genius using reverse psychology is when he stated “I had to tell them to that I should not return until in the morning and had given them the explicit orders not to leave the house. These were orders that were sufficient to insure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned” (Poe).
If you look all of the information from a different standpoint, you would have to consider some of Poe’s other works. As already stated, Poe’s style of writing dealing with madness and death. The many kinds of Edgar Allan Poe’s works involve death, madness, and murder. Knowing this can enable a reader to grasp the tone in his story better. Our main character in "The Cask of Amontillado," Montresor can construe as an insane person or the super evil mastermind of it all.
It was my understanding that he does not have justification for the deeds and the murder he is going to commit. Because here was a man with no remorse, no feelings, no guilt, he either ignores or lacks that little voice that tells someone. He felt that he had suffered at the taunting hands of Fortunato and that his revenge was legitimate. He knew that Fortunato had wronged Montresor as the man of a societal rank, with the slew of insults and that had been ongoing for quite some
...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.
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.
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
Each of the literary devices used in "A Cask of Amontillado" serves to reinforce Poe's single effect. As Poe himself says in "The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale," an author "invents such incidents--he then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect." The use of the first person perspective along with some irony, foreshadowing, and metaphor aid the delivery of Poe's single effect in "A Cask of Amontillado."
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).
Poe begins setting the tone of the story by describing the gloomy and threatening vaults beneath Montressor’s home. The first description of the Montressor home, as well as the reader’s first hint that something is amiss, is the description of the time off Montressor had required his employees to take. This alone lets us know that some of his intentions are less than virtuous. He describes the vaults as extensive, having many rooms, and being insufferably damp. This description of Montressor’s vaults strikes a feeling of uneasiness and fear in the reader, as well as a fear of malevolent things to come. References to the bodies laid to rest in the ca...
Poe, at a duo of times in the story, demonstrates how a human being can achieve something from someone without even demanding for it. An example of reverse psychology in “The Cask of Amontillado” is when Montresor asks Fortunato to experience Amontillado, but at the same time says,“…I will not impose upon you good nature. I perceive you have an engagement…”
The Cask of Amontillado is a horror short story, which revolves around the themes of revenge and pride. The plot involves two men: Montresor, the narrator, who is an Italian aristocrat seeking revenge against the second main character: Fortunato, a proud man that flaunts about his knowledge of wines and who finally walks into his own death.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of Amontillado." Reading and Writing about Literature. Phillip Sipiora. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2002. 240-244.
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...
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.
Thompson states, “He similarly shows confidence in the rightness of his action in his last words to Fortunato. Fortunato, desperate for his life, pleads, ‘For the love of God, Montresor!’ Montresor, with what must strike Fortunato as biting irony, replies, ‘Yes,... for the love of God!’. He is doing this ... not ‘For God and Country!’but for ..., "For God and family!"(555) This shows the irony of the situation. Fortunato expected this all to be a joke, but he soon realizes that it is not. This also shows the final example of poetic justice. Montresor commits murder for the love and the name of his family which Fortunato has disgraced.
“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.
The first indirect factor that could contribute to Montresor’s vengeful act, and thus the story’s theme of revenge, is the character of Montresor. Montresor tends to harbor feelings of resentment and has a hard time not taking things out of context (Womack). He also plans the murder of Fortunato in advance and devises it in such a way that he will not be caught. In killing Fortunato, Montreso...
Poe, Edgar Allan. “That Cask of Amontillado.” Ibiblio. U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.d.