Fortunato In The Cask Of Amontillado

“The Cask of Amontillado” is a spectacular horror story by author Edgar Allan Poe, cleverly plotted and well crafted. In a prodigious show of mischief, Poe brings forth Fortunato, an epicure of superior wines, an enjoyer of festivities, and a very inebriated man. The night of Carnival, this jaunty fellow has lost all abstemiousness to the powerful grasp of intoxication. Perhaps had he not been so indulgent in his choice of vintage, he would have avoided falling prey to an even sorrier fate, namely, that which Mr. Poe chooses for him: “He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.”[1] Behold the attire he wears to the grave. In his bumbling ignorance, Fortunato is blind to his forthcoming quietus. Poe, a master puppeteer, leads his marionette further and further into
Claiming to have suffered many insults from the latter, the aristocrat Montresor—whose name mon trésor “my treasure” calls to mind leisurely indolence and curbs our sympathy for the unlikely hero—vows revenge. He leads Fortunato to his doom in the meandering catacombs. The greatest weapon yielded by Montresor is his clever, witty art of manipulation. He utilizes reverse psychology and can thus control many weaker characters. Fortunato, already grappling with the clutches of inebriation, is an easy prey: “You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as I once was”[2], croons our protagonist. The plump Fortunato is deceived into believing that his health and well-being are of importance to Montresor. Reverse psychology plays an important role in the story, without it Montresor would never have succeeded in luring Fortunato into and through the catacombs. Reverse psychology also contributes to the horror of “The Cask of Amontillado.” It is not physical horror; rather, it is a mental