Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado tells the story of Montresor’s murder of Fortunato. Fortunato is lead into the depths of Montresor’s wine cellar and eventually sealed behind a brick wall, where he is left to die. While the story leaves the details of Fortunato’s death to be imagined by the reader, his death is an example of the common fear of immurement; being trapped in an enclosed space with no way out for the remainder of one’s life. Montresor’s choice of execution makes one wonder what Fortunato could have done to him to meet such a cruel fate. The way in which Montresor, the narrator, tells the story also calls into question his mental health, and whether Fortunato actually did anything to him in the first place.
The story gives a surprising amount of detail right off the bat, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” (Poe 179). We immediately know that Montresor had suffered at the hand of Fortunato for some time. However, throughout the story, Montresor refers to Fortunato as …show more content…
It would certainly have been simpler to choke him with a chain or stab him in the heart with a knife. The way he chose is sadistic. He wanted Fortunato to suffer and feel a tremendous amount of fear before he finally died. That also once again brings up what Fortunato could have said to him. Assuming the insults were real, it’s hard to fathom what could be bad enough to warrant sealing Fortunato behind a wall. We get a sense of what could have been said towards the end of the story when Fortunato says “I forget your arms” (Poe 118). If Montresor’s social standing was as high as Fortunato’s is, one would assume that Fortunato would know the coat of arms of the Montresors. It’s likely that a lot of what was said to Montresor that brought up such feelings of hatred towards Fortunato had to do with his declining social
The story gives a surprising amount of detail right off the bat, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” (Poe 179). We immediately know that Montresor had suffered at the hand of Fortunato for some time. However, throughout the story, Montresor refers to Fortunato as …show more content…
It would certainly have been simpler to choke him with a chain or stab him in the heart with a knife. The way he chose is sadistic. He wanted Fortunato to suffer and feel a tremendous amount of fear before he finally died. That also once again brings up what Fortunato could have said to him. Assuming the insults were real, it’s hard to fathom what could be bad enough to warrant sealing Fortunato behind a wall. We get a sense of what could have been said towards the end of the story when Fortunato says “I forget your arms” (Poe 118). If Montresor’s social standing was as high as Fortunato’s is, one would assume that Fortunato would know the coat of arms of the Montresors. It’s likely that a lot of what was said to Montresor that brought up such feelings of hatred towards Fortunato had to do with his declining social