Revenge And Secrecy In The Cask Of Amontillado

A major theme of “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe is revenge and secrecy. Throughout the story Montresor plots and carries out his revenge against Fortunato. During the time the story takes place, protecting your family at any cost was acceptable, so to protect his family he kills Fortunato.
The two characters that were introduced are Montresor and Fortunato. As the reader begins to read the story the author makes it very clear that Montresor wants revenge. The author tells us that the relationship between Montresor and Fortunato was not a good one. The first line of the story goes as follows “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” (Poe) Apparently, Fortunato had caused pain to Montresor multiple times in the past and Montresor was fed up with it, and finally decided to do something about it. As the story progresses the reader learns the different characteristics of each one of the men. Fortunato, the one who is killed is a jokester, the way the author tells the reader that is by describing his outfit at the carnival, which was a grand

The plot of the short story also helps the reader understand the theme of the story which is revenge. Montresor used wine, something that Fortunato loved, and made it the thing that hurt him the most. The way that Montresor protected his family was represented by him burying Fortunato inside the Montresor’s catacomb. In the end, Montresor talks about how after 50 years of Fortunato’s body being unbothered. The author may have included this last peace to suggest that Montresor got away with murder. The very last words of this story were “In pace requiescat,” (Poe) which in translation mean rest in peace. Maybe Montresor did not feel the relief that he thought he would after killing