Revenge is an interesting and overwhelming emotion people experience in their lifetime. From businessmen damaging the reputations of those who have rejected them, to students gunning down their own classmates in school hallways, revenge is malicious, dark, and violent craving people carry as a form of establishing justice to transform their humiliation into pride. Although many people believe bringing retribution to another helps release stress and escape conflict, revenge actually causes more damage by leaving an emotional scar of guilt and unpleasantness. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, by Edgar Allan Poe, readers can see Montresor’s emotional scar when he still clearly recalls his crime of murdering his acquaintance, Fortunato, fifty years
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The cask of Amontillado is a lie Montresor uses to lure Fortunato to his death. When the reader analyzes the title, “Amontillado” is the alcoholic beverage the narrator claims to have in his family’s catacomb, and “the casks” are barrels used for storing wine. Montresor tells Fortunato at the carnival that he “received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado” (525); in context, “cask” means the same thing as “pipe”. Interestingly, “cask” can also mean “casket”, which defines as coffin. The relationship between the two terms tells the reader that although Fortunato tries to find a cask of Amontillado, he ends up finding his own casket of death. The Amontillado symbolizes Fortunato’s pleasure of wine, and he is willing to travel anywhere to satisfy his needs. In the end, the wine betrays and kills him as Montresor takes advantage of Fortunato’s vulnerability of desiring the Amontillado and lures him to the catacomb to carry out his …show more content…
The builder’s trowel is a recognized symbol of the Freemasons. According to masonsmart.com, “The trowel is an instrument used by operative masons to spread the cement which unites the individual stones of a building into one common mass. As Free and Accepted Masons we symbolically use it to spread the cement of brotherly love and affection; that cement which unites us into one sacred band or society of friends and brothers” (“Freemason
The cask of Amontillado is a lie Montresor uses to lure Fortunato to his death. When the reader analyzes the title, “Amontillado” is the alcoholic beverage the narrator claims to have in his family’s catacomb, and “the casks” are barrels used for storing wine. Montresor tells Fortunato at the carnival that he “received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado” (525); in context, “cask” means the same thing as “pipe”. Interestingly, “cask” can also mean “casket”, which defines as coffin. The relationship between the two terms tells the reader that although Fortunato tries to find a cask of Amontillado, he ends up finding his own casket of death. The Amontillado symbolizes Fortunato’s pleasure of wine, and he is willing to travel anywhere to satisfy his needs. In the end, the wine betrays and kills him as Montresor takes advantage of Fortunato’s vulnerability of desiring the Amontillado and lures him to the catacomb to carry out his …show more content…
The builder’s trowel is a recognized symbol of the Freemasons. According to masonsmart.com, “The trowel is an instrument used by operative masons to spread the cement which unites the individual stones of a building into one common mass. As Free and Accepted Masons we symbolically use it to spread the cement of brotherly love and affection; that cement which unites us into one sacred band or society of friends and brothers” (“Freemason