The Cask of Amontillado
For my writing assignment, I chose the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe. Poe spins a tale of the ultimate deception, which leads Fortunato to his demise. I selected this work for many reasons, it appealed to me, I am a fan of Poe and his ability to twist and turn a readers mind without revealing his shocking endings too soon, and because I wanted to dissect our in class discussion more, because I do not believe Montresor is mentally ill. When we discussed The Cask of Amontillado in class, it seemed that the majority of the class believed that Montresor must have suffered from some psychological disorder to be able to carry out such a heinous act against Fortunato. I disagree with this statement …show more content…
In order to do this we need to take into consideration, not only the time in when this story is set but the location as well, Poe wrote this in ., when a families honor was much different than it is in today’s world. Poe even starts the story off with “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I have borne, as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.”(Text pg 764) This line alone tells us that Montresor has dealt with a lot from Fortunato but Fortunato has done something this time that crosses a line. If we look at the article “The Cask of Amontillado”: A Case For The Defense., we can clearly see that place, time and family honor all play into Montresor’s act of revenge.” To do justice to Montresor we should understand that he is not an individual person seeking redress for personal insult or injury but rather an agent of retribution acting on behalf of his family.” (The Cask) coupled with “In order to understand how Montresor can feel justified in what he is done and be free of any twinge of guilt even 50 years after the event we must understand how family in general and his own families motto and code of arms in particular affected his motivation” (The Cask). Now we have an entirely new set of rules to play by. Fortunato must have done something that
For my writing assignment, I chose the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe. Poe spins a tale of the ultimate deception, which leads Fortunato to his demise. I selected this work for many reasons, it appealed to me, I am a fan of Poe and his ability to twist and turn a readers mind without revealing his shocking endings too soon, and because I wanted to dissect our in class discussion more, because I do not believe Montresor is mentally ill. When we discussed The Cask of Amontillado in class, it seemed that the majority of the class believed that Montresor must have suffered from some psychological disorder to be able to carry out such a heinous act against Fortunato. I disagree with this statement …show more content…
In order to do this we need to take into consideration, not only the time in when this story is set but the location as well, Poe wrote this in ., when a families honor was much different than it is in today’s world. Poe even starts the story off with “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I have borne, as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.”(Text pg 764) This line alone tells us that Montresor has dealt with a lot from Fortunato but Fortunato has done something this time that crosses a line. If we look at the article “The Cask of Amontillado”: A Case For The Defense., we can clearly see that place, time and family honor all play into Montresor’s act of revenge.” To do justice to Montresor we should understand that he is not an individual person seeking redress for personal insult or injury but rather an agent of retribution acting on behalf of his family.” (The Cask) coupled with “In order to understand how Montresor can feel justified in what he is done and be free of any twinge of guilt even 50 years after the event we must understand how family in general and his own families motto and code of arms in particular affected his motivation” (The Cask). Now we have an entirely new set of rules to play by. Fortunato must have done something that