The Nature Of Revenge In Edgar Allen Poe's Cask Of The Amontillado

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Douglas Horton once said, “ While seeking revenge, dig two graves-one for yourself.” Revenge is an interesting topic, and many people have many different takes on it. However, revenge is almost always detrimental to all parties involved. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “Cask of the Amontillado”, Montresor seeks revenge against Fortunato who has wronged him in the past. In Pierre Morel’s Taken, the main character takes revenge on an organization that has been terrorizing his family. Both stories have much in common and depict the idea that revenge destroys all parties in their use of characters, themes, and conflict. One of the ways both stories show that revenge is destructive to both parties is through their use of characters. In the Poe story “Cask …show more content…
In the Poe story the whole reason Montresor takes revenge on Fortunato is because of all the things Fortunato has done to wrong him. “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge…At length I would be avenged; this as the point definitively settled-but the very definitiveness with which I was resolved, precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity” (Poe 209). This quote proves that the only reason Montresor takes revenge on Fortunato is because of all the wrong things that he had done to Montresor. There is a similar idea in the movie Taken. In the movie Brian Mills has nothing against those men until they kidnapped his daughter, after they did that he goes out and seeks revenge. One quote that really exemplifies this takes place when Brian finally finds one of the men (named Saint Claire) that took his daughter: Saint Clair: “Please understand… It was all business. It wasn’t personal.” Brian: “It was all personal to me” (Taken) that quote takes place just before Brian takes the kidnappers life. This again shows that there was no animosity between the two before the kidnapping, however, after the kidnapping it provoked Brian to the point of taking this man’s life. While there are many aspects of these two stories that are very similar there are some …show more content…
This is the case when comparing these two story’s internal conflict. In the Poe story Montresor takes revenge on Fortunato because of the actions Fortunato has taken against Montresor. It is shown well by the following quote: “Ten thousand injuries I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 209). This quote shows that the reason Montresor takes revenge is because Fortunato has wronged him not because Fortunato has wronged somebody Montresor knows. In the movie Taken, however, it is a different story. The reason Brian takes revenge isn’t because the kidnappers affected him directly but they harmed someone close to him, which caused him to take revenge. One can easily notice this in the following quote: “If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you” (Taken). This quote shows that he is taking revenge on behalf of his daughter. He wants to get back at these men for things they did to his daughter, not to

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