Montresor in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and the chambermaid in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s “The Goose Girl” both personify the dark side of human nature. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor, the vile narrator, tells the story of how he ruthlessly murdered his victim, Fortunato, fifty years ago. In “The Goose Girl,” the treacherous chambermaid forces the princess to trade places with her in order to marry a prince from a distant land. Montresor uses manipulation to accomplish his revenge; unlike the chambermaid who primarily uses coercion and deception. Montresor was successful in committing the perfect revenge whereas the chambermaid was exposed and punished for her deception. Both stories use different methods to teach different lessons. It is through Montresor’s victim, Fortunato, whose weaknesses illustrate the dangers of addiction, pride, and insensitivity, whereas the chambermaid exemplifies the perils of deceitfulness. Even though Montresor and the chambermaid are distinct in many ways, both characters are opportunistic, deceitful, and sadistic in nature.
The first resemblance between the two characters is that they are both opportunistic. In Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor takes advantage of the fact that Fortunato is inebriated at the carnival. He uses this opportunity to lure Fortunato to his palazzo to carry out his devious plan. Montresor also knows that Fortunato is addicted to wine. He cunningly baits Fortunato by telling him he has some Amontillado and he also gets him even more drunk in route to the catacombs. Near the end of the story, Montresor states “I had scarcely laid the first tier of masonry when I discovered that the intoxication of Fortunato had in a great measure worn off” (...
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...W. Grimm 411) Both Montresor and the chambermaid were truly quite sinister in that they enjoyed making other people suffer.
In Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” Montresor is an exaggerated and quintessential character that embodies the sneaky, vengeful part of human beings. Whilst the chambermaid in the Brothers Grimm “The Goose Girl”, is a classic evil character common in fairy tale stories. Both characters are comparable in that they are opportunistic, deceitful, and sadistic; they are both good examples of unsympathetic characters. Whilst they are presented differently, they clearly teach lessons in the stories can apply to everyone, everywhere, and in all situations.
Works Cited
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. “The Goose-Girl.” Kinder- und Hausmärchen. 7th ed.D. L. Ashliman, trans. Berlin: n.p., 1857. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan, “The Cask of Amontillado” p 236
In the Edgar Allan Poe stories "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" the most prominent and important themes that are used are death, logic, and irony. The characters of the narrator and Montresor in these stories are both coldblooded murders who kill for selfish and inane reasons who firmly believe that their actions are justified even though their justifications only make sense in their own minds. They both try to convince their audience that they are sane by explaining to them their reasons for killing their victims and admitting how they did it, which only helps to prove their insanity. The narrator and Montresor are similar in that they both have impaired senses of judgment encouraged by perverse morals and believe that the horrible things that they do are justifiable.
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 the short story " Cask of Amontillado ", written by the famous poet, Edgar Allen Poe, the main character Montressor shows his deceptive side. Montressor wants to kill Fortunado as revenge for something Fortunado did in the past. So he unfolds a plan that he has set up to kill an enemy of his named Fortunado. One instance is when Montressor tempts Fortunado into the catacombs with a cask and wine called amontillado proving his skills in deceit. Montressor must have experience in tempting and deceiving people. He then plies Fortunado with good wine so that he will follow him and be swayed easier to go farther since he is not in the right mindand not recognize his deceit. Another time is when on Montressor asks Fortunado about his health when
In "Cask of Amontillado", Montresor is the narrator. "The thousand of injuries of Fortunato he has borne as he best could; but when he ventures upon insult, Montresor vows revenge" (Poe 528). As the story unfolds, "Montresor's idea of perfect revenge" is "characteristically precise and logical in detail" as to how he commits his crime (Delaney 1).
Despite Edgar Allan Poe being one of the inventors of detective fiction, the Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart are not about detection but the process of the murder. The former one is about Montresor, who tells how he killed his ’friend’ Fortunato while he was illuminated. Montresor plans to commit the perfect murder ("I must not only punish, but punish with impunity.”), and seemingly succeeds in that, but scholars like Thomas Pribek, Walter Stepp, J. Gerald Kennedy, Charles May, G.R. Thompson and Scott Peeples argue that Montresor has failed to commit the perfect crime because he has suffered the pangs of remorse. (Baraban 47-48)
In order to fully understand Poe’s use of the narrator the two previously mentioned stories must be summarized. "The Cask of Amontillado" is a tale about the narrator, Montresor, who desires to act revenge on his acquaintance Fortunato. He lures Fortunato into his basement in order for Fortunato to examine a rare wine called an Amontillado. While in the deep crypt Montresor offers Fortunato more and more wine so that by the time Fortunato gets to the area where the cask is kept he is heavily intoxicated. Montresor then chains Fortunato to a stone and begins to build a wall, trapping Fortunato inside the crypt to die while Fortunato screams and pleads for his life. Montresor, hearing his pleas for mercy and life, ignores them and continues to build the wall knowing that no one will ever find the body of the unfortunate Fortunato.
As a story opens, an unnamed narrator first words says, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.”(164) Montresor who tells a story is taking revenge on Fortunato because he has suffered a “thousand injuries” although he never mentions exactly what happened. Edgar Allan Poe creates a perfect crime in a murder story “The Cask of Amontillado” through the use of a character that exhibits characteristics of a psychopath, a horrifying plot and a dramatic irony.
The power to change is man’s greatest struggles, since a strong influence that lead them to where they are now. It is also the price and journey that both Montresor in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell Tale Heart” and the narrator of the “The Cask of Amontillado”, another of poe’s story. In both story the narrators, both indicate that they want to get rid of an addiction they had that is driving them to madness, and in order to do so they, must do it at any cost. Both narrator clearly plan on their instincts and carefully plans out methods in which leads them to their satisfaction. These stories contain many similarities and differences in the use of tone, irony and symbolism, of the protagonist. Through these characters and their actions,
Poe uses the aspects of dramatic and verbal irony, foreshadowing and symbolism to shape his tale of revenge. Fortunato's fate is death and Montresor tries to make his intentions seem honorable. His intentions were not honorable, just evil. He does however, manage to get what he set out for, revenge.
Anything not taken in moderation can be damaging. In one of Edgar Allen Poe's best-known tales of horror, "The Cask of Amontillado," he suggests that pride can be a very dangerous thing, when one is overwhelmed with it. Through the use of foreshadowing, irony, and symbolism, Poe presents a horrific drama of two men. One who will stop at nothing to get the revenge that he deems himself and his family worthy of, and another who's pride will ultimately be the fall of his own death. Fortunato falls prey to Montressor's plans because he is so proud of his connoisseurship of wine, and it is for the sake of his own pride that Montressor takes revenge on Fortunato. Poe utilizes the theme of pride and many other literary techniques such as foreshadowing, revenge, and irony, in order to create a horrific and suspenseful masterpiece.
Poe creates a beautiful, suspenseful, and ominous narrative of revenge through these elements. From the beginning of the short story, he creates suspicion regarding trustworthiness of the narrator through the deliberate ambiguity regarding the motive of the murder and outfitting Montresor in black. Poe is using the Gothic elements of an unreliable narrator and darkness to warn readers that there is a hidden darkness residing inside Montresor. Moreover, the connection of Montresor to the serpent brings not only the Gothic component of evil, but also suggests a connection to the devil; also, Poe does not merely use a serpent, but a fanged serpent in reference to Montresor, which means that the serpent is venomous. Using the venomous serpent to portray Montresor in the coat of arms suggests that Montresor’s strike against Fortunato will be a deadly one. Without the use of Gothic elements to create a dark and suspenseful narrative, this story of revenge might be mistaken for a tale of justice. Removal of the Gothic elements in “the Cask of Amontillado,” would greatly reduce the quality of the work and possibly change the interpretation of the short story. In sum, without using elements of the Gothic, a tale of revenge could not be created because it would lack the darkness needed to craft a quality story of
Poe presents the narrators of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado" as devious, obsessed characters. Both are overpowered by the need to consume the life of their victim. Though they use different strategies to carry out the murders in different ways, obsession is the driving force in both. It is this obsession that inspires them to design cunning strategies and carry out the executions.
In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of the Amontillado”, Montresor has always been viewed as a sociopath. He is a man who lured his friend into his family 's catacombs by lying to him. He then got his friend, Fortunato, drunk enough that he did not know what was going on. Montresor then chained his friend to a wall and boxed him in with mortar, all as an act of revenge and justice in his eyes. Although Montresor trapping Fortunato in the catacombs can be viewed as a cold, evil, heartless act, it does not mean that Fortunato’s death was meaningless. Montresor viewed Fortunato’s death as poetic justice, but others can not help but think of the irony of the situation. Poetic justice is defined as a result or occurrence that seems proper because someone
... carnival, so that the narrator would not consult another supposed wine connoisseur about the cask of amontillado, the reader must identify with the dark parts of their character and learn from the mistakes of the characters in this story. Like Montresor, all people have faults and by illustrating this extremely flawed character, Poe allows the reader a glimpse at the flaws in their own. Even Montresor recognizes that he must hares his crime, whether to confess or brag, the story could not die with him. Montresor is a vehicle that allows the reader to identify with their own shortcomings. He was consumed by a thirst for revenge, driven by pride, aided by intelligence, and suffering from a sense of inadequacy which created jealousy. Montresor demonstrates that vengeance and pride are impure motivators that lead to sinister thoughts and actions unfit for judgement day.
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is a frightening and entertaining short story about the severe consequences that result from persistent mockery and an unforgiving heart. Poe’s excellent use of Gothicism within the story sets the perfect tone for a dark and sinister plot of murder to unfold. “The Cask of Amontillado” simply overflows with various themes and other literary elements that result from Poe’s Gothic style of writing. Of these various themes, one that tends to dominant the story as a whole is the theme of revenge, which Poe supports with his sophisticated use of direct and indirect factors, irony, and symbolism.