In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allan Poe writes about how a man named Montresor exacted revenge on his enemy, Fortunato. The story is told by Montresor, who narrates that Fortunato had caused him a thousand injuries and insults (Poe 1). The narrator vows to avenge himself and plans on how to go about it. Knowing Fortunato’s love and weakness for wine, Montresor lures Fortunato into wine-tasting a drink he believes might be Amontillado.
Montresor has sent his servants away so that he can be alone in the catacombs with Fortunato. When they reach deep into the catacombs, Montresor chains Fortunato and then builds a wall barrier to trap him within the crypts (Poe 10). Fortunato screams to Montresor, begging to be released, but the screams eventually stop. At the end of the story, Montresor reveals that this series of events happened half a century ago.
I was both impressed and horrified when reading this story. I was fascinated by Montresor’s brilliant planning because Fortunato did not even realize that Montresor wanted to kill him. Montresor used Fortunato’s weakness against him and devised a master plan to avenge himself. However, I was also shocked by the viciousness of his actions. Despite Fortunato’s screams, Montresor does not stop constructing the wall barrier. Regardless of what Fortunato had done to Montresor, I do not believe it was justified for the latter to retaliate in this manner. Montresor is most certainly an evil man, which is further depicted at the end of the story when he continues to delight in what he did to Fortunato fifty years after the fact. This short story by Edgar Allan Poe is certainly in line with the theme of evil.
Work Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1846.