Revenge

What is revenge? The action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands. In "The Cask of Amontillado", by Edgar Allen Poe opens up by saying "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge." (Roberts, p.519) Montressor uses deception to lure Fortunato in, and shows no remorse to being a killer.  During the story Fortunato was given clues prior to his death, but ignored them due to his intoxicated state of mind.

 In the "Cask of Amontillado" Montressor seeks revenge against Fortunato by killing him. 
When people seek revenge that also sometimes use decption to luer their victom in. In the "Cask of Amitillado" Montressor kicks his revenge off by getting Fortunado drunk because it would be easier to get him to the creepy vaults.  The irony of Montressor and Fortunado's horrific trip to the vaults is that Montressor said"we will go back; your health is precious" because Fortundao was coughing.  This is an example of reverse psychology, and is often used to trick the victim into thinking that the killer cares but really there is an alternative motive.   

When the men were almost at the vaults they came to a wall that was covered in human skeletal remains.  Which in my opinion was a clue to the fact that something fishy was going on at this strange place, but they casually ignored the carcases and continued with their journey.   

The most disturbing portion of this story was at the end when Fortunato was buried alive, screaming at the top of his lungs and Montressor sat back laughing, and felt no compassion nor remorse. Poe wrote about being buried alive multiple times through out his writing career, mainly because of his extreme fear of being buried alive.  Being buried while a person was still conscious would be one of the most horrific things to happen to anyone, because no matter what death is inevitable.

After reading this story I was slightly shocked, by the deception, clues, and lack of compassion.   "The Cask of Amontillado", by Edgar Allen Poe was an interestingly gruesome story that I would most likely not read again, due to the negativity, and goriness.  

Works Cited

Roberts, Edgar V. Literature; an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Boston: Longman, 2009. Web. 15 Apr. 2011.