The Cask Of Amontillado Situation Analysis

Manipulating the Situation When an individual meets others, he or she likes to be in control of how they perceive him or her, as most times people like to have control in order to obtain a specific outcome from a particular situation. For sociologist Erving Goffman, “when an individual appears before others, he [or she] will have many motives for trying to control the impression they receive of the situation” (199). This is due to his or her intentions to have a positive effect on the audience. By applying this thought of Goffman in the story “The Cask of Amontillado” written by Edgar Allan Poe, we can analize the purpose for Montressor to present himself in a subtle way when he meets with Fortunato. Goffman explains how people, like Fortunato, “can rely on assumptions as to the persistence and generally psychological traits as a means of predicting his present and future behavior” (194). This happens to Fortunato because he “[knows him] by virtue of previous experience prior to their interaction” in the party (194). Therefore, Fortunato trusted that as Montressor is being behaving sane for the time he knowns him, he would behave as sane on that day. For instance, Fortunato is relying on those assumptions to trust Montressor, and thinks he is predicting correctly what is going to happen in the …show more content…
According to Goffman, the individual, in this case Montressor, is “projecting a definition of the situation”, as when Montressor mentions that Luchesi can taste the Amontillado instead of Fortunato, it makes him even more proud, and more motivated to go further and be persuaded by his “friend’s” plan. Montressor defines the situation as a competition between Luchesi and Fortunato, and his victim believes it very well. Fortunato even states that “Luchesi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry”