The short story by Allan Poe revolves around the fatal revenge of a friend. The insult by the friend spurred the emotions of the man to take revenge. The narrator keeps the story in the 19th-century engaging style. The perspective of the story is from the murderer. The narrator has a specific plan for revenge. It is not merely a revelation of the facts and happenings in the story. The vengeful acts are justified for the reader. With confidence in their decisions and revengeful actions, the characters did not feel any guilt. The contrast between the freedom and the confinement is excessive in the short story. The Montresor’s overwhelming need for revenge is honour and pride.
Discussion
Other than the problem of honour and pride, the story also unfolded the nature and type of guilt. According to the narrator, Fortunato has insulted him. The writer was a perfectionist. It is difficult to believe that he will provide the Montresor strong support without underlying a thousand injuries he has suffered. The description of the injuries at the opening of the story does not include the expository style. The writer was aware that he would use those injuries at any stage of the story. The reader can easily overlook the injurious behaviour described by the writer. The Fortunato was rich, and the Montresor was poor. They have dealing goods with the millionaires. Both people brought antiques, luxuries, and pure wines.
They sold the products to the wealthy foreigners. The Fortunato, as he was rich, easily outbid the Montresor. It was the business dealings that caused Montresor to suffer a number of injuries. The Montresor mostly consider himself a French man. However, he was born in Italy and also lived in the same country. He provided his victim with French wine two times while they were under the ground. The Montresor family lived in Italy for some time. He is considered an outsider by the aristocracy (Axelrod, 15). The sadistic pleasure of Fortunato reminds him that he is an outsider. The Montresor was known to the fact that Fortunato was planning to beat him out of all the attractive deals. This understanding of Montresor against Fortunato’s character makes him the enemy of the latter. However, the Montresor never unfolded those thousand injuries.
The Montresor planned to punish Fortunato over the insult he perceived. The type of the abuse was unknown, and the study reveals that it would be minor because there were suspicions from the Fortunato. The Montresor was deranged clearly, which also shows that the Fortunato committed no bigger mistake. Before the attempt, Montresor clears the house from all of the servants to show his anonymity. He was well known that if he told them anything, it would lead to more significant harm to himself. He also knows that Fortunato lies about drinking and that giving him the wine will provide him with smoothness and calmness.
Montresor leads Fortunato into the underground crypt. There were bones and wines placed around them. To have the trust of Fortunato, Montresor pretends that he is keen on his health. He also passes certain jokes to make him laugh at Fortunato. The drunken Fortunato, after experiencing all of these things from his friend, becomes comfortable that there is nothing suspicious about Montresor. The Montresor has planned all that before getting his friend into the darkness of life. The material for the killing was hiding, and he guided his friend to move in. As Montresor bricked the niche up, Fortunato was alarmed. However, his realization of the plan was too late when a close friend ultimately ended his life. At the end of the story, Montresor grows sick. He immediately gets away from the scene of the crime because no one will reach the body.
The desire to take revenge is always influenced by the inner instinct of the man. There are a number of battles and wars with the only purpose of making retaliation from the opponents. In the story, the same thirst for vengeance leads to the end of the precious life of Fortunato. He has to die because his friend does not want to accept the insult that goes unpunished. It is clear that Montresor’s honour and pride override his feelings. This revenge has revealed two different qualities (Foy, 255). The first one is that it must not be retributed, and the second is that the person who went through the punishment must know who has punished him. The Montresor has said that he wanted to be avenged at length. This implies that there is long and lengthy planning for revenge. The utterance also reveals that Montresor anticipated the joy.
On page fifty-four of the story, Fortunato asks about the coat of arms of his family. The Montresor responded that it was the significant human foot that meant to crush a serpent rampant. The foot is revealed as a symbol for the Montresor, and the snake symbolizes the Fortunato. The example of the snake who bites the foot means that Fortunato has hurt and gave the loss to his friend. Certain symbols in the story unfold many links with future happenings and interrelated things. Through such symbols, Montresor warns and tries to convey his message towards Fortunato, but unfortunately, the friend is unable to understand the symbolic language of the killer friend. If Fortunato had realized the inner feelings of his friend, he might have escaped from the scene.
The use of symbols is critical to the story. Various ironic symbols unfolded the real meaning, like the sick heart of Montresor at the time when he killed his friend. The soul goes sick because he buried a man alive. It was ironic for the readers. Upon meeting with the Fortunato, the Montresor told him, “My dear Fortunato, you were luckily met.” The Fortunato had the idea that his friend was greeting him upon the meeting. However, Montresor, by implying the word lucky, means that the carnival was presenting the prime time for the murder of his friend (Saxton, 137). The writer of the story unfolded the cleverness of the Montresor many times. For example, he said that he bought a cask of Amontillado without having any contact with the expert. He does this because he is afraid of losing the bargain. There are other ironic gestures by the protagonist against his friend.
The human tendency is naturally to resist those asking what to do. In practical life, we also come across drug abusers who are regular towards these activities. Drunks’ are used to such activity. Pretending that Fortunato turns back, his friend suggests to him that there would be no danger ahead. He also added that there are no ulterior motives for leading the Fortunato to the onward. He mocks the terror of the Fortunato and enjoys that horror time with his friend. The purpose of the narrator’s May Rest in Peace is to achieve complete satisfaction, closure, and revenge. He also felt bad about his friend Fortunate. He will have no such belief anymore after the expiry of Fortunato’s life.
The perfect and complete revenge, according to the Montresor, is depicted in the line where he says, I must not only punish but punish with impunity (Saxton, 14). This shows that his inner feelings are words for Fortunato. He can forgive or choose other kinds of punishment. The ending words of the story also reveal certain meanings. “In pace requiescat” implied a sense of sincerity. He can utter these words because he is the only one who knows where the Fortunato lies. In the same way, the word closure is identified in the text as cleaning the hatred and the bad memories from the heart. The fact that the bones of the Fortunato have not been discovered for fifty years is proof of Montresor punishment with impunity.
Conclusion
Concluding the discussion on the short story by Allan Poe, it is worth mentioning that the tale consists of several themes of revenge. The text reveals that the story is the reflection of the author’s thoughts and personal involvement. It could be the author’s written enjoyment, as nobody was hurt physically. The author has also justified acts of revenge for its reader. The quintessential tale of the Amontillado became the full revenge story due to the complete absence of Montresor regarding the acceptance of guilt. The extreme contrast between the freedom and the confinement provides the reader a fresh feeling. However, the primary purpose of the revenge was the insult of honour and the pride of the Montresor.
Works Cited
Axelrod-Sokolov, Mark. “The Madness of Insult in Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado.” Madness in Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. 1-16.
Foy, Roslyn Reso, and William E. Lambo. “Freemasonry, the Brethren, and the Twists of Edgar Allan Poe in THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO.” The Explicator 73.4 (2015): 252-256.
Saxton, Audrey. “The Devil’s in the Details.” Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism, Vol. 10: Iss. 10.1 (2017): 137.
Saxton, Audrey. “The Devil’s in the Details: A Characterization of Montresor in Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism 10.1 (2017): 16.
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