Introduction
Being a vivid example of a gothic short story, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado“ portrays death from the perspective of the main character’s fascination with immolation for revenge. The short story shows two characters, a narrator named Montresor and a man named Fortunato, whom the main character accuses of repeated insults, for which he wants revenge. Montresor tricks Fortunato into coming to his palace’s catacombs to taste a wine called Amontillado since Fortunato is known for his wine expertise.
Being proud of his skills, Fortunato agrees to come with Montresor and becomes his victim when Montresor buries him in the stone wall of the vault. Poe’s portrayal of the similarities between the two men and their fascination with death implies that Montresor and Fortunato represent the same individual. This paper aims to claim that the main character’s burying of Fortunato manifests the repression of his subconscious mind and an attempt to suppress the destructive impact of his flawed subconscious.
Fascination with Death
Montresor perceives death as an ultimate manifestation of justice if a person who committed wrongdoing is punished for their actions. He states that “I must not only punish but punish with impunity“ (Poe para. 1). In his opinion, the ability to avoid punishment or even acknowledgment by anyone does not justify the revenge as a true victory over the evil. In his explanation, he clearly and sophisticatedly says that “a wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser“ (Poe para. 1). In the case of his revenge on Fortunato, the narrator, who appears to be a well-educated and sophisticated man judging from his narrative style and language, intentionally prepares in advance and plots the murder.
Indeed, he waits until a carnival in the town so that people will not notice Frotunato’s disappearance. The narrator is proud of plotting the murder when he describes how well he was prepared when he sent the servants away from the palace. He ordered them not to leave the house while he would be out all night, and “these orders were sufficient, I well knew, to ensure their immediate disappearance“ (Poe para. 26).
He also prepares bricks and mortar. He hides them under the pile of bones in the catacombs to later bury Fortunato by building a wall and imprisoning him, thus killing him. Furthermore, as the story’s ending implies, the narrator still enjoys the outcomes of the revenge and Fortunato’s death because nobody learned about his crime in fifty years.
The author’s use of irony vividly highlights Montresor’s fascination with death. He foretastes and anticipates the killing, which is implied at several points throughout the story. For example, the name Fortunato, which denotes the meaning of being fortunate, seems ironically used by the author to indicate that luck is not on Fortunato’s side.
Furthermore, when Fortunato coughs, he says, “the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me; I shall not die of a cough,“ and Montresor replies, “true — true“ (Poe para. 38). This irony builds the gothic atmosphere. It elevates the degree of darkness and tension in the story where the reader and the narrator both understand the inevitability of Fortunato’s death, and the narrator enjoys it. Thus, the assumption that the narrator is fascinated with death as a manifestation of retribution and revenge is justified by the irony that Poe uses continuously in the short story.
Montresor and Fortunato as the Two Personality Manifestations of the Same Person
Multiple similarities between Fortunato and Montresor might be observed, indicating that they represent different conscious levels of the same individual. Indeed, they both live in Italy and are fascinated with wine tasting and collecting. As the narrator describes Fortunato, “in the matter of old wines he was sincere; in this respect, I did not differ from him materially; — I was skillful in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could“ (Poe para. 3).
In the opening part of the plot of the short story, the reader learns that the two characters are acquainted and probably have known each other for a long time. Indeed, the main character utters that “the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could,“ implying that there has been a long history of their interaction, where Fortunato assaulted Motresor (Poe para. 1). Nonetheless, these allegations are subjective and groundless since the narrator does not provide any reliable proof of the injuries throughout the story.
Moreover, they share life-related circumstances, preferences, interests, and character traits. Indeed, both characters possess the same high pride in their personalities. The narrator directly states that “he had a weak point — this Fortunato — although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared“ because he “prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine“ (Poe para. 3).
However, the vice that Montresor despises so much in Fortunato is the feature that he possesses as well. Indeed, his pride motivates him to avenge after Fortunato insults him, meaning his dignity is injured. Indeed, although Montresor could bear the numerous alleged injuries, when Fortunato “ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge“ (Poe para. 1). Thus, the similarity in character traits demonstrates that both heroes of the short story might represent the same person conscious and subconscious minds.
In addition, the mode of their interaction demonstrates Montresor’s hypocrisy when he smiles at Fortunato. At some point at the beginning of the short story, the narrator shares his intention to kill Fortunato while stating that “I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face“ (Poe para. 2). These quotes might imply that since the two characters have known each other for a long time, have certain habits of interaction, and one has been oppressing the other, they represented the conscious and unconscious minds of the same person.
Burying as Repression of the Subconscious
Given the evidence that Fortunato is the suppressed manifestation of Montresor’s personality, it allows for interpreting the act of burying as the repression of the subconscious mind. Indeed, Montrestor decides to bury Fortunato in his family vault, which might indicate the latter’s supposed belonging to the family or being a part of Montresor’s self. The family arms Montresor refers to shows as “the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel,“ which implies the punishment for any abuser (Poe para. 48). The method of murder that the main character chooses, which is blocking the man in a niche and building a wall to shut him demonstrates the willingness to suppress and hide the part of the subconscious that bothers the narrator.
Another particularity is the importance of the killing to be kept secretive and undisclosed to anyone, which resembles a manifestation of human behavior that hides the alternative side of personality. The suppression of the subconscious eventually leads to the main character’s implied destruction because Montresor does not regret or demonstrate remorse for his wrongdoing. Although his calmness after the killing might be considered as finding peace or resurrection after repressing an aspect of himself, Montresor’s personality is destroyed by the event.
When considering the possibility of burying an element of himself serving as Montresor’s chance for resurrection, one might refer to the story’s ending. Montresor states that “for the half of a century, no mortal has disturbed them“ (Poe para. 91). Thus, since the narrator was capable of living his whole life bearing this secret, considering his crime an act of justice and proudly thinking about it, the burying of his unconscious destroyed him.
Conclusion
The analysis of the gothic short story “The Cask of Amontillado“ has demonstrated that the author uses a gothic style to create a story of self-destruction by burying an aspect of one’s subconscious. The similarities between Montresor and Fortunato indicate that they represent the same person whose pride becomes both the motivation and the cause for killing. The suppression of the side of the personality that one despises is characterized by impunity, which does not allow the narrator to interpret his actions rationally. Ultimately, since the narrator remembers the event half a century later, his actions might be considered self-destructive.
Work Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” Poe Museum, Web.