The Cask of Amontillado

Introduction

In the short repugnance article “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, Poe endeavours to express why both pride and revenge can become dangerous when a individual is overwhelmed by either. Poe, through the use of diverse scholarly techniques, inserts an horrific drama of two men, one who will stop at not anything to get the revenge that he accepts as true himself and his family worthy of, and another whose pride will ultimately become the equipment of his own death. Fortunato falls prey to Montresor's plans because he is so proud of his expertise in wine, and it is for the sake of his own pride that Montresor takes revenge on the heedless Fortunato (Thomas, 133-141).

Analysis

Poe shows how pride and revenge can make a man become obsessive to the point where he justifies murder—something he normally would never do—through exaggerated reasoning, and how pride can make a man so blind that he walks obliviously to his own death. The dangers of Montresor's pride are exemplified in his statement explaining his motivation behind plotting Fortunato's death.

“The thousand injuries at the hands of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (Thomas, 133-141). Montresor is so convinced of the righteousness of his convictions that he “must not only penalize but penalize with impunity” (Poe, 173). Montresor also states how he should not go wrong to “make himself sensed as such to him who has finished the incorrect”. Montresor's words prove how his prideful obsessions have deluded his mind enough to believe that Fortunato's wrongs justify his agonizing death (Thomas, 133-141).

Furthermore, Montresor accepts as true he should proceed unpunished for his retribution. Furtunato's pride, and the danger this imposes upon his life, is seen in how he blinds himself to his obviously perilous situation. Montresor entreats Fortunato to leave the tombs three times mentioning how Fortunato's cough may be caused by the niter. Each time Fortunato declines regardless of his deep hack, which proves how dignity has blinded him to his imminent doom. However, after Fortunato is locked in his tomb Montresor says “once more let me implore you to come back” (Poe, 176) mocking how Fortunato blindly passed up his three chances to get away, because now Montresor “must positively depart” (Reynolds, 96-7) him to die.

In fact, Fortunato never doubts Montresor's story, never questions why the cask has been placed within Montresor's family tomb, or why the cask is so far into this tomb, and is easily tricked when Montresor mentions that Luchesi can accomplish the same task if Fortunato is not up to it. These actions prove how Fortunato's obsessive need to identify the good wine from the bad confirms that he is as much a fool as his motley suit denotes (Benton, 19-27).

According to Cooper “The fool furthermore comprises unregenerate man who does not understand whence he came or where he is going but goes on blindly in the direction of the ...