Attacks With Punishment in The Cask of Amontillado Essay

2/17/11

Essay I

Attacks With Punishment

Nobody attacks me without punishment; those are not words to live your life by if you are a normal forgiving person. In the story The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe that is just how his main character acts. For Montresor, he believes revenge is a dish better served cold. He stays quiet for some time and lays low. He struggles with this wrong doing that Fortunto had done to him in the past. And he makes his choice to take his revenge upon him by knowing one of Fortunto weaknesses, his knowledge of fine wine. He lures him into the dark damp catacombs under his house and the riverbed where not a soul would be; this is where Montresor kept his wine and where Fortunto would have his last walk. It is here where Fortunto punishment will be carried out by Montresor without any hesitations or second thoughts.

Montresor is not a man you want make angry for any sort of reason. He is not one to let go of a grudge he feels against a person. He was once a rich, powerful and respected man in his prime. During those glory days he was wronged by a friend of his, Fortunto. The story never mentions what that dirty deed that Montresor could not forgive, but it defiantly burned a whole in his heard that would not heal. So much so that he rationalized his wrong doing in his head before even begins to explain the story. A wrong is unredressed when retribution over takes his redresser. It is equally unressed when the adventure fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong. He is making himself fell not as guilty by saying that he would be doing just as much wrong as Fortunato had done to him if he did not do anything to him to make him pay for what he had done. This is not the thinking of a mentally healthy individual.

Monlerestro had planned his revenge for some time now. He definably did his homework by going over every little detail of his actions. He must of studied Fortuno personality and actions and knew how he would react to every situation and environment he was put in. This is proven by Monlerestros smooth talking and actions he made to make Fortuno do what he wanted by using reverse philology. Monlerestros kept mentioning a rival of Fortuno in the fine wine area of expertise, knowing he wouldn't want to give his rival the chance to taste such a great wine of amontillado. "You are engaged, I am on my way to see Luchesi. if anyone has a critical turn, it is he"---" Luchesi can't tell amontillado from sherry!"(15) He would mention Luchesi if Fortuno showed any symptoms to start to doubt him or have any reason to turn back. He also knew that if you tell someone that has everything that they can't have it, they will only want it more. After Fortunos bad health came apparent by minutes of coughing in the damp catacombs Monleretro said "We will go back, you will become ill, and I cannot be responsible."(16) Just as Monleretro knew, Fortuno declined and insisted they kept pressing on.

When they finally got to the niche that the Amontillado was supposedly in the now drunk Fortunos was eager to taste the wine and give his expert opinion for which was the reason he came, but only to have Monleretro shackle him to the wall. Fortuno had no idea what was going on while it was happening "He was too astounded to resist." (18) and didnt attempt to resist or make a sound till the alcohol wore off in his system and started to cry " it was not the cry of a drunken man" (18) and Monleretro started to wall off the little niche he was chained to by placing bricks at the entrance . Now Fortuno starts to show the signs that he knows he is going to die. After some time of being quiet and Monleretro almost completing the wall to the entrance of the niche Fortuno starts laughing. "Ha-Ha!-Ha! He! He!- a very good joke indeed- an excellent jest. We will have many a rich laugh about it in the palazzo. He! He! He!" which is the first stage of dying, denial.

Monleretro is an obsessed, smart, and mentally ill individual. He would have to be in order to perform all these dark acts and still have a good night's in his nice house sleep right above the catacombs knowing Fortuno was locked and walled in just below him slowly dying. He is smart because he knew about using reverse philology and practiced it so well on Fortuno. He got him to do exactly what he wanted by asking the opposite .That only comes from obsessing over a single person, knowing everything about them to make that work so flawlessly. Also by the smoothness of his actions and words it seemed like he had done this before, probably a confidence of a man who has obsessed and ran over this situation over and over inside of his head so much that he knew of every little minute detail. Only someone who isn't right in the head would think so much of something, and then actually perform everything they have planned out in such great detail and walk away with a clean conscious, such as Monleretro has done.