The Cask of Amontillado: Successful Crime, Vain Revenge by 'AFeinga

The Cask of Amontillado: Successful Crime, Vain Revenge

            In the story “The Cask of Amontillado”, Edgar Allan Poe takes us on a journey into the mind of what many would perceive as a mad man. He brought forth Montresor, the narrator, who seek revenge from his offender Fortunato. At several places in the story, Poe leads us to ponder this question: How could a person like Montresor imagine insults of such magnitude so as to cause him to effect such a horrible revenge? Informing the entire story is the nature of an insult that could evoke such a well-planned, diabolical scheme of revenge. Revenge is a point of pride and it will never be a problem-solving strategy because a sin committed will never go without punishments.

            “The Cask of Amontillado”, being such a perfect example of first person narration, is made an example of in many literary journals, and even textbooks. Evidently, Poe’s use of narration and mood can be broken down and analyzed. Looking at other works by Edgar Allen Poe, his style and overall underlying conflict becomes clear. His pieces and poetry tend to be very dark and involve murder or death. This may have something to do with his childhood and less than perfect life. Poe’s life started out rough. He was orphaned at a young age when his mother died. His first marriage to Elmira Royster was called off by her parents. He joins and gets discharged from the army, and not long after that his foster mother dies, then shortly after that his foster father, giving Poe no recognition in the will. A series of unfortunate events more like. His dark tragic life is reflected in the mood of all of his works, not excluding “The Cask of Amontillado”. The very first sentence of the story starts with, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge”. The very first sentence gives in to the dark mood. Like most writers, Poe took his inspiration from his life experiences, and then mixed those with the creative power of his imagination.

            Poe starts out with Montresor, wanting revenge on Fortunato. The major characteristics of the narrator and main character, Montresor, are anger, hatred, and revenge. In the story, he is angry with Fortunato because he believes that Fortunato has wronged and insulted him many times. Most of the story takes place deep in the Montresor family catacombs. As Montresor traps Fortunato into the catacombs, he chains Fortunato up to a small hole in a wall, bricks it over, and leaves Fortunato to die. Even through the traits of anger, hatred, and revenge, as the story progresses on, Montresor  starts to show signs of feeling guilty for wanting to murder Fortunato. Engel, Leonard W. “VICTIM AND VITIMIZER: POE’S” The Cask of Amontillado 1983 stated: “In spite of his quick and effective work, Montresor pauses twice more before he finishes. The first pause occurs when Fortunato releases a ‘succession of loud and shrill screams. For a brief moment I hesitated- I trembled’”. The frantic screams of Fortunato momentarily disturb Montresor. The second disturbance, Engel continues, comes when he is nearly finished. He thrusts the torch through the remaining hole and let it fall and “There came forth in return only a jingling on the bells. My heart grew sick…” Although Montresor is obviously fascinated by the deadly enclosure, and uses it with satisfaction in walling up Fortunato, he also experiences moments of horror while within it.

Another common truth Poe plays upon is the price of one's pride. Fortunato has obviously acted in a manner than insulted Montresor's pride. Montresor has been wounded and so he feels that he must avenge those wounds to maintain his honor. This is the driving force for his revenge, he wanted to keep his honor and his pride caused him to do this to Fortunato. Once his victim is walled up and Montresor’s neurosis is in a sense buried and out of sight, he believes he will probably regain some of measure of his sanity. “Montresor goes much deeper, it seems as if he is reaching deep into the past, into his ancestor’s heritage, to deal with his current problem, Fortunato’s insults. He chose his family’s catacombs, even his ancestor’s bones, to conceal Fortunato’s body” (Engel, Leonard W. “VICTIM AND VITIMIZER: POE’S” The Cask of Amontillado 1983). His acts indicate he wants to be rid of his victim, he wants Fortunato to understand his family culture and belief.  Montresor’s family motto is as, “Nemo me impure lacessit”. This motto means “Nobody attacks me with impurity”. This family motto shows that Montresor firmly believes in his motto as well proving where he gets his traits of revenge.

 Authors use setting to convey certain feelings brought on by the character’s surroundings. It also serves to illustrate the character’s intentions. Morsberger, Robert E. “The Cask of Amontillado” Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition 2004, discussed a letter written by Reverend Joel Tyler Headley (1814-1897) in a study of the composition of “The Cask of Amontillado.” In this article, Headley wrote that the scene of this story is laid in Italy, and the action is motivated by a spirit of revenge. Poe uses the dark, imposing setting to communicate the underlying conflicts of the story, being death, revenge, pride and deception.  Poe begins setting the tone of the story by describing the gloomy and threatening vaults beneath Montresor’s home. The first description of the Montresor home, as well as the reader’s first hint that something is amiss, is the description of the time off Montresor had required his employees to take. This indicates that Montresor was clever at the right time, his entire plan of revenge was contrived with such perfection. Although Poe does not describe many of the Catacomb rooms, I believe he chooses not to. This is simply a tool to lead the readers to believe that the rooms are all the same, therefore, bringing sobering fear and possibly even death with them. Poe describes these few rooms, each having the decayed remains of the deceased, bringing on a feeling of uneasiness and fear. The air in the crypts is thick and cruel, with the foul stench of decay and mold, which “…caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame.” The main room is described as small room four feet deep by three feet wide and six feet high, with chains affixed to the walls and human skeletons piled beside the entrance. Here, Montresor lures a drunk Fortunato into the room with the promise of Amontillado, only to chain him up and leave him to die. Poe doesn’t mention many noises in this selection, but noise is an important part of setting. Noise abducts the reader into the story, causing them to become part of it, and experience the same feelings as the characters.

Poe mostly mentions the noises created by Fortunato as he follows Montresor to his doom. Fortunato’s bells seem so have an eerie ring to them; almost as if signaling his death. His continuous coughing signalizes his death as well. The jingling of the bells on Fortunato’s hat remind the readers of the carnival, celebration of freedom, which both Montresor and Fortunato are participating in at the beginning of the story, proceeding without them in the city and seem to create a false sense of joy and promise. Montresor complied while wrapping himself in a cloak to make sure that he would not be recognized. Earlier, he had let all the servants off for the night, using the excuse of the carnival “…to make merry in the honor of the time.” Apparently, Montresor had been planning this revenge for a long time and, ironically, had chosen carnival time as the setting for this most horrible type of crime. Amid the fun of the carnival, he was sure he would avoid any possibility of being detected.

Using irony and foreshadowing throughout the story, Poe allow the reader to experience a little of what is about to happen as well as understanding how revenge was planned from the beginning. Let us start from the characters. Poe uses irony in naming the character of Fortunato. Fortunato means fortunate is Italian, we would assume that the character is in some way lucky or fortunate, but he is the opposite. He is being blindly led to his death by Montresor who is in search of revenge. Another irony presented in the story is Montresor’s first words to Fortunato, “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met.” Fortunato thinks Montresor means he is happy to see him but what Montresor means is the meeting is lucky because the carnival presents an excellent time for murder.

We also see irony when they were making their way through the catacombs and Fortunato kept coughing. He exclaimed “I will not die of a cough.” Montresor responds, “true.” It appears to be a hopeful statement. It is actually a wicked statement, and Montresor will soon end Fortunato’s life. Montresor is set to achieve his revenge, even when Fortunato has no idea about his plan, he enjoys leading him blindly into his trap. I believed his pride keeps pushing him to continue on with this crime, and later he will have his revenge. According to Engel, Leonard W. ‘VICTIM AND VICTIMIZER: POE’S “The Cask of Amontillado”’ 1983, he shared that Poe maybe wanted the reader to understand that in Montresor’s unconscious mind he is not murdering Fortunato, but burying and repressing that side of himself he can no longer endure, that side symbolized by Fortunato. 

In conclusion, Edgar Allen Poe revealed to us that being prideful, wanting to maintain honor and sanity can drive us to seek revenge. Revenge is not a problem-solving strategy, it can only infect whoever is seeking it with its effects. One of those effects come from asking ourselves this question: If killing Fortunato has burdened Montresor for so long, did he really revenge without punishment?  I agree with Morsberger, Robert E. “The Cask of Amontillado,” Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition: 2004, he stated: “Montresor, who have murdered his victim and then tried to conceal his body, does succeed in concealing his crime, but it has so obsessed his memory and imagination that fifty years after the act, he is able to render an exact, detailed description as though it occurred the previous day.” His crime committed is not found out until he informs the reader of it fifty years afterward. So, although the crime appears successful, the revenge is not, because Montresor has not freed himself from guilt. Montresor’s rest has surely been troubled.

Cited Work

Morsberger, Robert E. “The Cask of Amontillado,” Msaterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition: 2004, p.1-2

May, Charles E. “The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe,” American Literature: 2006, p.1-2

Engel, Leonard W. ‘VICTIM AND VICTIMIZER: POE’S “The Cask of Amontillado”’ 1983. Vol.15.

http://www.jstor.org.byuh.idm.oclc.org/stable/43796956