Characteristics Of Fortunato In The Cask Of Amontillado

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Have you ever felt you’ve been manipulated by a person you thought was your friend? The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe is the story of a man named Montresor who seeks revenge on his old friend, Fortunato. Fortunato is tricked by Montresor when Montresor gets Fortunato drunk and lures him into the family catacombs. Fortunato eventually is trapped and left to die by Montresor. The traits that eventually led to Fortunato’s death are his friendliness, carelessness, and pride. Fortunato's friendliness is one of his character traits that made him gullible to Montresor's trick. When Fortunato is being walked into the catacombs he says,"You? Impossible! A mason?"
(Poe 290) From this it is concluded that Fortunato thought he knew a lot about
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When Fortunato is first approaches by Montresor, Montresor tells the reader, "He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much."(Poe 286) Since Fortunato was drinking excessively, this demonstrates a bit of his carelessness. Again, Fortunato's carelessness is being demonstrated on the walk into the catacombs. An example of this would be when Fortunato is told to drink. Montresor informs us, "He raised it to his lips with a leer. He paused and nodded to me familiarly, while his bells jingled." (Poe 289) It is seen that Fortunato has no concern for what the alcohol might do to him. He should be especially concerned because of the mix of the nitre and drunkenness. One of the aspects that led to Fortunato’s death was his …show more content…
When Montresor is first telling the story he says, “He had a weak point -- this Fortunato -- although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared. He prided him in his connoisseurship of wine.” (Poe 286) Montresor already knew that Fortunato would jump at the chance to prove he was the best at identifying wines. So, even if Fortunato was told it would not be safe, he went down into the catacombs out of pride. We also see Fortunato’s pride when he talks of Luchresi. For example, Montressor says, “...herein is the Amontillado. As for Luchresi --” Then Fortunato interrupts stating, “He is ignoramus” (Poe 290) Here it is accepted that Fortunato believes he is the wine expert. He has pride and this eventually leads him into the catacombs to prove he is the best. Pride is the last element that affected

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