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Theme Of Revenge In The Cask Of Amontillado

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In Edgar Allen Poe’s story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” a man named Montresor has a feud with another man named Fortunato. Montresor decides to get revenge after Fortunato has consistently insulted him. Fortunato is a wine connoisseur, so Montresor uses that to trick him into going to the catacombs. While they are down there, Montresor gets Fortunato drunk, so that he will not realize what Montresor is doing. Montresor chains him and mounts a wall around him so he cannot get out. After that, Montresor leaves the catacombs for Fortunato to die. In Poe’s story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” the theme of revenge controls the story through irony, symbolism, and the setting. Revenge is the recurring theme throughout the story. This is obvious in the first sentence, which says, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 236). The use of irony is in use throughout the story as well as showing the theme of revenge. The first ironic implement about the story is Fortunato’s name. The name Fortunato is a cognate for the word fortunate. This ties in with the theme of revenge because Fortunato is about to suffer an extremely unfortunate fate. Irony and foreshadow is found when Montresor and Fortunato first enter the catacomb. Fortunato begins to cough due to the dampness and nitre in the catacomb. Montresor tells him that they should turn around and that his health is too precious. However, Fortunato does not
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