Fortunado takes pride in himself being the one of the best wine tasters around. Fortunado picks on his friend Montressor a lot. Fortunado's constant picking bothers Montressor greatly because he has a great amout of pride and when he is insulted it is hurt, just like every other persons pride would be. "The Cask of Amotillado" is a great story of pride and irony.
Fortunado is quite full of himself. Fortunado is not only full of himself, but he is also very cruel to his friend Montressor. Although Fortunado is simply joking when he insults Montressor, which evidently happens very often because the story opens with Montressor saying " The thousand injuries of Furtunado I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.". The opening of the story gives the impression that Montressor had enough of Fortunado's mindless insults and was going to put a stop to it, and he did. Later in the story Montressor reveals that his family motto is "Nemo me impune lacessit" which is translated to mean "No one attacks me with impunity". Impunity means; exemption from punishment or loss. In a sense Montressor was betraying his family by letting Fortunato insult him without punishment. Montressor uses Fortunado's pride of being one of the best wine testers and lures him to his tomb by offering a chance to taste a rare fine wine. While Montressor is trying to lure him down to his catacomb Fortunado tries to turn back but, all Montressor had to say was "Luchesi" who is Fortunado's rival. In the end Montressor buries Fortunado alive, all because Fortunado insulted him in a friendly fashion.
"The Cask of Amontillado" is a great demonstration of pride because it shows what people will do because of their pride. Montressor killed because his pride was insulted by Fortunado. Fortunado was lured to his death because he did not want to be out done by his rival. The story also demonstrates irony because Fortunado means fortunate and in the end he was buried alive, not such a fortunate fate in my eyes.
Works Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. Best of Poe: the tell-tale heart, the raven, the cask of Amontillado, and 30 others. Clayton, Del.: Prestwick House, 2006. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment