Kirkman 1
Kirkman 2
Haleigh Kirkman
Ms. Bierman
Eng 102-24
07 February 2019
“The Cask of Amontillado”
How can someone remember all of the small details from a situation that has
happened over fifty years ago? In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Fortunato and Montresor were at a carnival in the late 1700’s early 1800’s in Italy. Montresor planned out a murder and knew what he was capable of. Montresor and Fortunato both have great knowledge of wine so of course someone will have a collection perhaps in a wine cellar. Both of these men were very known in Italy and theyre both very competive towards one another. Montresor is a sociopath and a murderer.
In the past between these two men, there has been feuds which led up to the revenge killing. In the story it talks about how there was “thousands of injuries of Fortunato”, which would have been considered as the motive for his revenge. However, the motive was unclear and never straight forward for the readers. There is one crystal clear “reasoning” as to the revenge and that was because Fortunato offended Montresor, but he did not realize it because it was never brought up. In the story there was nothing talked about if he had a conversation with Fortunato about his behavior. What could have gone different if there was a conversation? If there was a conversation, would have Fortunato understood and apologized? Was murder too excessive? Did Fortunato really deserve this punishment? If Montresor had talked about Fortunato’s behavior to him maybe, he would have been understanding with an apology and then they could become friends again and enjoy the carnival with one another. Fortunato did not deserve the excessive torture before his death.
Montresor has been planning this murder carefully as a revenge towards Fortunato. Montresor knew the carnival was going to be busy along with people drinking and having fun no one would notice Fortunato going with Montresor. He is intelligent because the carnival was a great cover up since everyone including Fortunato were out having fun and drinking. Montresor had this all planned out even with his attendants he said, “There were no attendants at home; they had absconded to make merry in honour of the time. I had told them that I should not return until the morning and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house” (Poe). With him knowing the attendants would obey him as he ordered, Fortunato would be the only one at Montresor’s place along with thinking his plan is going accordingly. Fortunato wa under the impression of going down to Montresor’s catacobs in his house for a bottle of wine. The both of them were very interested with wines as much as Montresor secretly knew he was the better wine person out of the two of them. Fortunato was very intoxicated therefore Montresor knew this was the perfect time. He knew Fortunato was intoxicated because he said, “he turned towards me, and looked into my eyes with two fi...
