Literary Analysis: "The Cask of Amontillado"

I have always been intrigued by Poe’s stories due to his dark and mysterious plots. “The Cask of Amontillado,” is a terrifying piece of work which explores one mans ultimate plot for revenge. Montresor is a man who seeks a disturbing ending to another man’s life, Fortunato. The fascinating aspect to the story is the reader never completely understand Montresor’s reasoning behind wanting to to kill Fortunato. The fact that the narrator, Montresor, is the only point of view the readers have causes an extremely bias opinion over the events of the story. I believe to completely understand the story, the readers need to have a lot of doubt in Montresor. The narrator never tells the readers of this horrible act or “insult” which Fortunato did, which causes doubt in my mind. At the same time, Montresor choses to take justice in his own hands instead of having the law intercede. I think this is due to the fact that Fortunato’s “insult” would not result in his death if it was taken into the law’s hands, and Montresor can not live with that thought. 

Ultimately, Montresor succeeds in murdering his enemy by trapping him in a cave. He does this so by telling Fortunato that he has a rare Amontillado, a type of alcoholic beverage. Fortunato, apparently a wine expert, insist that he taste this drink which is located in Montresor’s deep vaults. Fortunato is trapped in his vaults and left there to die. The interesting part I found about the story was that Montresor is telling this story 50 years after he committed this crime. My thoughts behind this reason would be possibly because he is starting to feel guilt.

Another interesting aspect to the story is Poe’s use of irony throughout the story. The first, and most prevalent, example would be Fortunato’s name which is Italian for “fortunate.” It is extremely obvious to readers that Fortunato is the least fortunate character in the short story. Another example would be that this violent act all took place during a carnival. An event that is usually expressed with joy and laughter is the scene for murder and revenge.