Example Of Essay On Short Story Analysis On Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask Of Amontillado

The Cask of Amontillado was one of famous American writer Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. It involves the story of the narrator named Montresor and his arch enemy, at least based on his perceptions, named Fortunato. In the beginning of the story, Montresor was wailing about how he has been irreparably insulted by his acquaintance—referring to Fortunato. An almost clear picture of what type of character Montresor has can be obtained as early as the first few paragraphs of the short story. The main and sub-conflicts in the story were mainly the result of Montresor’s hunger for vengeance. He wanted to exact revenge for being in the receiving end of Fortunato’s insults. The choice of words and language used by the author signifies that he wanted to kill Fortunato for what he did. Montresor’s risk-averse side was also exposed here. He wanted to exact his revenge without placing himself at risk. He knew that the traditional way of doing it would put even his life in grave danger because Fortunato after all is an able man. So, he came up with the plan to use Fortunato’s fondness of wine against him. he decided to invite Fortunato to a wine-tasting session during the carnival season. He knew that Fortunato would not be able to resist his offer. He orchestrated his intent well-enough to make it look like his offer was a candid request from an acquaintance—this evidently was something that the unsuspecting Fortunato bit. Montresor’s convincing powers were the ones at play during most part of the story. He kept on making suggestions that Fortunato did not have to go and make all the adjustments just so he could come and accommodate Montresor’s invitation. Montresor, in that scenario, was the one who was yearning to convince Fortunato to go with him to the vault and taste the wine that he prepared. Yet, he used a candid way of hiding his true intentions by making it look like he did not really care whether Fortunato goes with him downstairs to the vault or not. This strategy proved to be effective because one can see from Fortunato’s responses to Montresor’s suggestions that his sense of curiosity was being piqued.
In Hess’ work about the Cask of Amontillado, she pointed out that Poe used a perfect example of how irony could be used to pique the readers’ interests in the story. The irony in that case can be observed from the characters of Fortunato and Montresor. According to Hess (01), they were the exact opposite of each other. Fortunato can be described as the gullible type, the one who is easy to get along with—the typical friendly person. Additionally, he may also be considered as the unsuspecting one. Montresor, on the other hand, was the dominatrix, the vicious and the deceptive one. The way how Fortunato was dressed during that evening was also trivial to what was supposed to happen to him at the end of the story. Apparently, his style of clothing made it appear that he would later on become a sacrificial lamb or a drunken. The carnival, on the other hand, was the symbol of man’s sin. Another form of irony in the story was when it was Montresor who felt sad and unfulfilled despite having succeeded with her plans. He managed to exact his revenge against Fortunato. He also managed to kill him. Yet he was walking there inside the catacombs, sad and feeling incomplete. He turned out to be the one living in the darkness despite having succeeded with her evil and immoral plan.