Amontillado Essay: Montresor's Needs For Murder

Montresor’s Must Haves for Murder In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” one of the main characters, Fortunato, has insulted the other, Montresor. Acting as if nothing has come between them Montresor requests that his former friend Fortunato journey into the vaults to taste test a wine for authenticity. After several brief delays to gaze at the increasing nitre and drink multiple more wines the pair reaches the conclusion of their journey together. After asking Fortunato to step into a niche and retrieve the Amontillado, Montresor bound him to the wall with shackles and began to rebuild the wall of stones and remains behind Fortunato. After several bouts of conversation which ranged from moans sorrow and silence, to incomprehensible shouting, and then finally peaking at Fortunato begging Montresor to release him, Montresor finished the rampart of the catacombs and silenced Fortunato forever (Poe 1108-1113). Montresor was both vengeful and intelligent, but also cautious which ultimately allowed him to achieve his vengeance and Fortunato’s demise. When Fortunato wronged Montresor in the very beginning of the story Montresor desired vengeance, stating, “but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 1108). This statement preludes to a dark path …show more content…
Montresor’s vengefulness is what first enacted his plan to achieve revenge in the form of Fortunato’s death. Montresor’s intelligence was what led to Fortunato entering the vaults with Montresor in arm, completely unaware of the perils that lay deep underground. Lastly, it was Montresor’s cautiousness that allowed him to not only dispose of Fortunato, but to do so discretely and unknowingly to the general public. These three characteristics of Montresor allowed him to dispose of Fortunato in a way that no one would expect, and to achieve vengeance of the highest