The Cask Of Amontillado Theme Essay

The Cask of Amontillado is a dark and ghostly short story written by famous American writer and poet, Edgar Allan Poe. Like many other tales and poems conceived by Poe, the story is told through first person narration. The character is usually in psychological distress and his judgement is questionable. Furthermore, the atmosphere of the story is extremely mysterious and eerie, with part of the plot being hidden in the shadow. The Cask of Amontillado explores many different topics, including friendship, competition, self fulfillment and internal tension. However, the story presents an overarching theme which is: "Human desire for revenge overwhelms all morality". Many avid readers of Poe's literature will find that many of the themes presented in his stories are related to his struggles in life. One such theme in The Cask of
Poe explores this notion throughout the story and reveals why "No one can be self fulfilled." The two opposing personalities, Montresor and Fortunato, could not find self fulfillment in their lives, letting self-fulfillment be their greatest hamartia.. In order for Montresor to find meaning in his life, he had to kill Fortunato. In contrast, Fortunato had everything a man could ask for: respect, riches and connoisseurship in wine. However, he still was not satisfied and sought to gain even more respect and pride putting down people such as Lucresi and Montresor. He continually said "Luchesi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry." He may have uttered those words to cover his lack of self confidence. In the end, the story uncovers that in order for Montresor or Fortunato to be self fulfilled the other person must be gone. This "finding of self" or self-fulfillment can be closely connected to our world and the hippie movement. Many hippies yearned for a life that was free and easy. However, many did not understand that they would never truly find themselves if they were not grounded to