Theme Of Manipulation In The Cask Of Amontillado

“The Cask of Amontillado” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. In The Cask of Amontillado one of the main characters named Montressor wanted to get revenge on Fortunado, another main character. Montresor wanted revenge on Fortunado because Fortunado hurt him in 1,000 ways. Montresor leads Fortunado down into the catacombs so he can make his revenge final, which is killing him. When Fortunado gets down there, Montressor walls him up and Fortunado dies.

“The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allen Poe is a story about revenge. The protagonist, Montressor, is confessing to a “you” about a murder that he had committed in the past. To determine the “you” the social classes of Montressor, the location of the story and revenge must be analyzed. In the story, Montressor speaks about Fortunato and says, “He prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine.” (Poe)

In The Cask of Amontillado, by Edgar Allan Poe, one of the characters demonstrates their mastery in manipulation. The character Montresor demonstrates his skill through reverse psychology. During the time of Carnival, Montresor, a man who follows his family motto, wants revenge on an enemy of his, named Fortunato, for the many injuries he previously caused Montresor and his family. The former tells his servants that he, “should not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to ensure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned” (Poe 4).

Man has been known to be the cruellest animal on our planet and since we are at the top of the food chain we can do anything we want to our planet and also other people. Our kind is so cruel that we destroy our world for the need of resources and we can even be cruel to each other. Humans throughout history have always been at war with each other over land, greed, culture and revenge. Revenge and greed are both prominent in the short stories Stone Mattress and The Cask of Amontillado. Both of these short stories have great examples of greed and revenge in them and that they are similar but both are set differently.

Amontillado is a kind of sherry. Montresor lured Fortunato to the vaults and made revenge with an exceptionally hideous way. In this story, Poe describes the mental state of Montresor and his character almost like a devil because of his cruelty during revenge. Montresor accomplishes the revenge because he has a strong violent vengefulness to Fortunato, is a very careful and intelligent person, and feels pleasure to kill people. Montresor has a strong violent vengefulness.

In the “Cask of Amontillado” Montressor is a very angry and vengeful man. He says that he was insulted by Fortunato, but fails to give a reason as to why or how. He begins to enact his revenge by luring Fortunato in with the rare wine and when his “friend” Fortunato is drunk, he t proceeds to bring him deeper and deeper underground, while telling him to turn around repeatedly. Once he reached a place where no one can hear them, Fortunato walked into what he thought was another corridor, but it would turn out to be his grave! For as soon as Fortunato hit the wall, Montressor chains him against it.

Due to the use of first person in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” Montresor’s syntax and diction are the only mechanisms used to characterize Fortuno in the story. This subjects the perception of both Fortuno and Montresor to a great deal of bias. Although Montresor claims that Fortuno has committed “a thousand injuries” (127) there are never any specific instances of his treachery cited within the text.

Everybody will eventually want revenge on an old friend or just someone they know. Montressor, similar to many people in the world, wants revenge on one of his old friends, Fortunato. The story opens with, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 212). In this statement, Montressor tells the reader what the cause of his revenge against Fortunato is. “The Cask of Amontillado”, written by Edgar Allen Poe, tells the story of how Montressor brings Fortunato into the catacombs to bury him alive.

When Poe writes The Cask of Amontillado from the point of view of Montresor, Montresor directly states that Fortunato has insulted him and that Montresor will get his revenge. In this opening phrase, Montresor has told the audience through direct characterization that he feels anger and resentment toward Fortunato. The reader can also indirectly infer that Montresor is a man whom most people do not want to insult or upset. Later on in the introduction Fortunato’s character beings developing through direct characaterization. The reader learns Fortunato is man who should be respected and even feared.

“The Cask of Amontillado” is one of Edgar’s Allen Poe best short narratives with its vengeful characters and eerie and horror-filled atmosphere. The story was published in 1847, to later be known as a classical tale of revenge. Both Fortunato and Montresor were the protagonist and antagonist that kept his short narrative alive and suspenseful to the audience. What also kept his story full of life was what happened to between these characters that made this story revengeful. Though what is revenge?

Martin Luther King Junior once said, “There is nothing more dangerous in all the world than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” (Luther 1963) While blunt, Luther beautifully explains that ignorance is not a human virtue and instead is dangerous. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is another example of how sincere ignorance is dangerous to the individual. Fortunato is well liked among his peers and is a respected individual when it comes to the connoisseurship of wine. However, unbenounced to him, he has also made an enemy of Montresor.

In “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allen Poe, Montresor displayed the image of a connoisseur as he artfully played with Fortunato to gain revenge.  First of all, Montresor used Fortunato’s intoxication to his advantage to entice him into the depths of the vaults.  Montresor perceived it would be much easier to manipulate Fortunato if he had been drinking all night long, so he implemented his plan after Fortunato had several drinks.   As the story recited, “‘Drink,’ I said, presenting him the wine,” Montresor kept Fortunato’s drinking persistent even as they entered the damp, eerie vaults.

In Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor has an evil plan to get revenge on his “friend,” Fortunato. Montresor's plan involves drinking the wine, Amontillado. Fortunato loves wine, and he will do anything for it, or with it. Wine plays a huge role in Montresor's plan. Montresor gets Fortunato to really think that they are “friends.”

Edgar Allan Poe is most famous for the gothic themes he presents in his writings, this was no exception for Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”. Several important ideas are brought up about the story’s central theme of revenge. These ideas can be broken down into 3 parts: the incentive, the extent, and the reaction of the person partaking in revenge. It is essential to consider these ideas while reading Poe’s story, in order to comprehend his views on revenge. It also provides the reader the ability to question their own views on revenge as well as compare it with Poe’s.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado” and Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” the two characters are consistently belittled by the antagonist in the stories. In “Sweat” Delia is an average housewife, but unfortunately she is in an abusive relationship with her husband named Sykes, who has a tendency to degrade Delia. Throughout the story, Sykes treats Delia horribly and towards the end of the story, Delia finally realizes that she has had enough of her abusive husband because he makes her feel as if she is not worth anything. Due to Sykes’ tendency to degrade her, Delia is considered to be a sympathetic character. The same kind of conflict affects the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado.”