The Cask Of Amontillado Literary Analysis

The Cask of Amontillado
The cask of amontillado by Poe is a dark story to read. Poe writes many twisted stories with characters like Montresor very often in these stories there is really no winner, no good guy, no triumph over evil as we see in so many stories today. People love when the unrealistic good forces conquer evil but this is almost the opposite of Poe’s stories where more often than not the leading forces are that of evil. This is prominent in the story of The cask of Amontillado where the reoccurring theme is revenge and deceit relying mostly on the character Montresor. As hard as it is to admit connecting with this character is not hard. Past the unreasonable crazy he seems to be he is just a guy who wants revenge. Although most
wouldn’t kill a friend for revenge but revenge is a theme that is easy to connect with. How many people can say they have never wanted revenge on another person? That’s what Montresor brings us in Poe’s short story of the cask of amontillado.
Montresor is our classic unreliable author. He is telling this story 50 years later and because no one but Montresor knows the truth we rely solely on his facts for the truth. We have no reason to trust Montresor to being with seeing as his characteristics include his dangerous and sneaky ways with his vengeful intentions. He is not a reliable guy throughout the story making him an even less reliable narrator. Our distrust of Montresor can only be backed by his actions during the story. He pretends throughout the entire story that he is friends and truly cares about Fortunato even though his true intensions are to kill Fortunato for revenge. Montresor uses Fortunato’s love of wine and dislike of Luchesi against him to convince him into going in the vaults with him. Montresor uses Fortunato’s intoxication against him well in the vaults also. All of these incidents just show hoe sneaky and deceitful Montresor really is. Montresor’s deceit doesn’t a stop there throughout the story we know the truth behind all of Montresor’s actions how he sends all his servants away to attend the carnival a seemingly genuine action that is truly backed with dark intents.
Montresor creates the continuous theme of revenge throughout the story without him there would really be no story. Just because he is the most important character doesn’t mean he is a crowd favor. Him being the embodiment of evil for this story can cause a dislike of the character for the audience but Montresor represents the darkness in us all. He takes actions to a whole new level killing his friend who secretly regards as his enemy. Pretty much anyone can relate to this secretly disliking someone or hoping for their failure Montresor just acts on his emotions. Montresor does not grow or develop at all through the story he more or less clearly states his emotions and intentions then continues to through his entire actions act on them. His actions mirror his originally stated intentions. All except one, after chaining Fortunato o the stone and sealing him inside his crypt to remain forever he writes on the outside of the wall “May he rest in peace” this action seems unusual considering his hatred for Fortunato. For Montresor to write this it gives him just a little humanity if you can look past the fact Montresor just killed
Fortunato. Some details of the story lead us to create our own opinions on the characters such as how we never know what Fortunato does to spike the anger of his friend. The story mostly leaves us with a positive view of him leaving us to sympathizes with him as a victim when as far as we know he could be a terrible man who deserves death. By leaving this out of the story Poe leaves us to imagine Montresor as our bad guy when this small detail in the story could change our whole view making Montresor our hero for riding us of Fortunato. Montresor also offers to bring Fortunato home in fear of his health over and over well in the vaults. This detail goes over looked when it could mean so much more. Perhaps Montresor wants Fortunato to turn around so he doesn’t have to go through with murdering him but Fortunato’s desire to use his superior knowledge of wine triumphs his desire to turn back. This shows us how arrogant Fortunato really is. That he would rather be right, be better than Luchesi than head the subtle warning to turn back. Montresor also brings out a trowel and shows it right to Fortunato this is direct foreshadowing of his intentions but Fortunato’s ignorance allows him to ignore this. All of these details when looked at closely could ultimately change our view of Montresor. Changing him for a psychotic killer to a man who had finally had enough of the real interrogator. Had Poe chosen to add a few more details to his story it could change our view on these two characters completely.