Sebastian Cintron ENC 1102 4/9/14

The Cask of Amontillado: The Dark and Mysterious Edgar Allan Poes The Cask of Amontillado, is a tale of a nobleman named Montresor, whom after being embarrassed by his best friend Fortunato, plots and executes an act of revenge, and later many years after the events confesses his murder to an unknown someone. Using irony and mind games against the reader, The Cask of Amontillado is a revenge story that has depth to its characters, and complexity to its narration. The story of The Cask of Amontillado starts with Montresor, a nobleman, retelling the events of the murder of his best friend Fortunato that he himself killed. Generally it is presumed by his telling that Fortunato had embarrassed him in one way as Montresor himself states, The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. (Edgar Allan Poe; The Norton Introduction to literature, pg. 165) The

thought is what happened between them to cause such a ripple between the two friends so much so that it would lead the other so such hateful acts. To understand the reasoning behind the murder, one must understand what the story is. Although The Cask of Amontillado seems on the surface a relatively simple revenge story, it is, in fact, a highly complex story (Charles E. May; Salem Press. September, 2006). And in many ways this stays true to what the surface is covering underneath in this mysterious story of revenge. The best way to understand what is

hidden underneath we first need to see and understand the characters motivations and who they are. First lets look at the similarities, between both characters. Jamil M. Mustafa describes the two as, proud, both are connoisseurs of wine, and are aristocrats. With that said, it can be believed that both Fortunato and Montresor lived their lives relatively close to one another almost with a brother like bond. Mustafa goes on to describe the two; Moreover, at several points throughout the tale Montresor echoes Fortunatos words and actions.(Jamil M. Mustafa. Literary Contexts in short stories. 2006) Its true, in the story at many points Montresor quotes Fortunato several times almost showing a brother like bond that at first can be misunderstood. Seeing as how the story ends, it can be implied that Montresor is more of the evil twin prepared to perform an evil deed. At the end when Montresor calls out Fortunatos name and doesnt receive an answer, it can be implied here that the bond has been broken, and that Montresors revenge has been achieved. But, if they shared such a deep possible bond, what could have happened between the two that caused the revenge scheme to come to full effect? Well, all that should be seen from the perspective of none other than Fortunato himself. As weve seen, Fortunato has been described to be in the same plane as Montresor. But what else can we get from his personality that can give us clues to who he really is. You see between both characters, the one that should be described the most is actually the mysterious one. We dont know what it truly is that Fortunato has done to receive such an end to his life. How did he embarrass or hurt Montresor? The only possible explanation is his one weakness; he is a connoisseur of wine. It is possible that he, unlike Montresor, is addicted to wine and therefore is a drunk. It is possible that in a drunk or tipsy state, he hurt Montresor so

badly, that it broke their brotherly bond. Even Montresor when coming up with the revenge scheme knew of his weakness, He had a weak point- this Fortunato- although in other regards he was to be respected and even feared. He prided himself upon his connoisseur-ship in wine. (Edgar Allan Poe; The Norton Introduction to literature, pg. 165). With that in mind Montresor made it his goal to use that weakness to his advantage and it only made his revenge all the more easier to execute. Whatever it is that Fortunato did, in the end he got the worse of it. And then there is Montresor. The main character, but not hero of the story, Montresor is the murderer that is telling an unknown someone the events of the story, years after its passing. Almost like a confession, or the feeling of regret there is much to ponder about why he is telling the story and the reasoning for his confession. One can look no further for the answer than the clues left through the narration and the irony within. Charles E. May states that the story is riddled with ironic effects that support the theory that the story is less than a simple murder tale. One ironic effect could be the Coat of Arms that Montresor himself wears. Charles describes it as, A human foot crushing a serpent, whose fangs are embedded in the heel (Charles E. May; Salem Press. September, 2006) From this we can concur that the foot is that of Montresor crushing the snake that is Fortunato. The bite itself resembles that Montresor still feels the sting from those events many years later, and in the end it is an ironic twist that in the end his revenge scheme and the pleasure of exacting his vengeance, were all for nothing. The narration helps with this concept as Robert E. considers it a completely genius way to fool and trick the readers perceptions of the events that will take place. One such example is he considers Montresor to be something of a Madman. Through the story he heinously tries to give Fortunato ways to get out of the situation that he doesnt know about and always makes

ironic remarks that may give hints to a new reader about his true intent. Robert claims that, Montresor revels in his own madness. He then echoes the cries and even surpasses those of his victim.(Robert E. Morsberger; Masterplots II: Short Story Series. January 2004) The psychological aspect of this story shows what the human mind conceives and does when all bets are off. The character Montresor is an example of a character whose psychology goes off the deep end when he is supposedly embarrassed and hurt by his best friend. He is hurt so badly that he breaks whatever bond he has with him, the friendship, and brotherhood all for a taste of revenge. At the end of the story he gets more conniving and evil, to the point that when he knows his plan will succeed he revels in the joy of it and begins to mockingly echo his best friends cry at the end until Fortunato cries no more sealing his fate and Montresors alike. In conclusion, The Cask of Amontillado is without a doubt Edgar Allan Poes most unique and mysterious short story. The characters are given little development and at the same time it equals more, the narration itself is complex and full of irony and clever twists, and more importantly the psychological aspect of it makes it almost timeless, making it relevant even to this day. In my opinion The Cask of Amontillado is Edgar Allan Poes most genius masterpiece.

Works Cited Burluck Michael L.; Grim Phantasms: Irony in Poes Short Fiction New York; Garland, 1993 Recommended Reading: 500 Classics Reviewed; June 1995

May Charles E.; The Cask of Amontillado An analysis of Edgar Allan Poes short story and the irony in revenge; Edgar Allan Poe. Salem Press. Magills Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition; September 2006

Morsberger Robert E.; The Cask of Amontillado: a summary and analysis of Edgar Allan Poes short horror story, Masterplots II: Short Story series, Revised Edition; January 2004.

Mustafa Jamil M.; Literary contexts in short stories: Edgar Allan Poes The Cask of Amontillado; Understanding Literature--- Literary Contexts in Poetry and Short Stories; 2006

Mays Kelly J.; Edgar Allan Poes The Cask of Amontillado Norton Introduction to Literature; Shorter Eleventh Edition. University of Nevada, Las Vegas; 2012