We see things only through Montresor’s ironic, obsessional mind, and he is not interested in reasons for his revenge if any indeed exist, but only in how he carries it out. We never learn the exact nature of the wrong Montresor alleges he has suffered at the hands of Fortunate, and we never need to know because this is not a part of Montresor’s story. Montresor the revenger meets his victim, the ironically named Fortunate, who is drunk and dressed in a clown’s outfit with bells that jangle from the top of his cap. The time of the story is evening, the place Italy during a carnival. The plot of the story is made up of mutually dependent parts that spring inevitably out of Montresor’s craving for revenge. He wastes no time on introductory Preambles the first paragraph establishes the situation, and the reader calls to mind Poe’s dictum that not one word in a tale should be wasted. The revenge theme is common place enough, but it is how Poe treats the theme that makes this story interesting. Poe’s philosophy of the short story deeply influenced his practices as a writer and the critical examination of The Cask of Amontillado (1846) will reveal how he embodied his principles of unity in his own art. The Cask of Amontillado Analysis The Cask of Amontillado Plot The narrator Montresor wanted to seek revenge on Fortunato in an effort to support his time-honored family motto “nemo me impune lacessit” or ‘no one assails me with impunity’ (no one can attack me without being punished). The main theme of the Cask of Amontillado written by Edgar Allan Poe is revenge. The unique burial is itself a sort of dramatic irony. He “vowed revenge.” He deliciously relishes the fortune of Fortunants. Determined in avenging his strange motive, he has a Machiavellian psyche, though he has endured “the thousand injures of Fortunates”. He is a skilled utilizer of the twilight dusk. His predecessors can be detected in the Jacobean Revenge Tragedies of England. Having no regret, he reveals the story of revenge fifty years later.Ī subtle manger of macabre setting and situations, Montresor is a ruthless, quick-witted, planner with careful manipulating power of revenge-taking. Montresor is made of different metal than generally met with Poe’s horror fiction. He lures his friend into the deepest catacombs beneath the ‘palazzo’, chains him to the walk of a small alcove, seals him in behind a new brick wall, in spite of Fortunato’s fervent appeal for mercy and leaves him to court death. His planning of revenge-taking is in Jacobean spirit. He cherished a grudge against Fortunato who has been engaged in several offences against him. His speeches are interspersed with Latin and French phrases. He hails from an established wealthy family, living in a large “palazzo” with a staff of servants. He, the teller of the tale, narrates the story of his killing Fortunato fifty years before. The very name ‘ Monstresor’ means ‘my treasure’.
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