One of Edgar Allen
Poe’s most famous stories “The Cask of Amontillado” relays the story of a man’s
murder confession that lacks the key ingredient of a motive for his malicious
act. Over the years, both scholars and critics have taken different stances as
to why they believe the main character Montresor takes the life of his “friend”
Fortunato. The story pans out as Montresor requests Fortunato’s expertise on a
newly obtained barrel of Amontillado wine located in his family’s vault. Upon reaching their destination,
Montresor chains his friend to the wall and proceeds to mercilessly mortar and
brick a wall in place to seal the exit to the vault and make sure Fortunato will
never be seen again. Throughout my research of Edgar Allan Poe and his story of
“The Cask of Amontillado,” I discovered many different reasons to explain why
Montresor murdered Fortunato. The
two speculations that really caught my attention were that Montresor was
mentally unstable and that there was a social class conflict between the two
men.
Based on the absence
of motivation for Montresor’s callous act, many critics such as Stuart Levine
and Stephen Peithman choose to believe that Montresor is simply insane.
Peithman finds support for Montresor’s insanity by suggesting that “if there is
any doubt that Montresor is mad, consider how he echoes Fortunato scream for
scream, shrieking even louder than his victim” (E. Baraban). Stuart Levine
views Montresor as mentally unstable since he “murders because of an unnamed
insult.” For this very reason I agree with Levine and Peithman that Montresor
is insane because no insult is worthy of murder and I believe any insult
regardless of its vulgarity could easily be handled in a more civil
manner.
Although I
choose to conceive that Montresor is mad, many critics disagree and support the
claim that “The Cask of Amontillado” is instead a story of conflict among
social classes that Poe created in this story (Interactions). Analysts such as
Burton R. Pollin that credit “The Cask of Amontillado” as a story of class
conflict often turn to one particular passage from the story as a clear instance
of support. The characterization of Fortunato is revealed in the excerpt
explaining that “Luchesi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry” which hints that
Montresor believes Fortunato is unworthy of his “reputation of connoisseur in
wine” (E. Baraban). This gives the reader a sense of an arising class conflict
that Poe created throughout the story.
I believe this
research leaves readers with the opportunity to determine what they believe is
the reason for Montresor’s trickery and murder of Fortunato. When Edgar Allen
Poe chose to leave the motive of Montresor absent from the story, he chose to
give the reader a chance to use their imagination to complete the mysteries
left untold in the story. As a reader of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of
Amontillado,” what do you believe is the reasoning behind the murder of
Fortunato and could the class conflict that individuals faced in the 1850s
possibly lead to such conditions as insanity?
Works Cited
Baraban, Elana V.
"E.V. Baraban: Murder in "The Cask of Amontillado"" RMMLA
Journal. RMMLa, 28 Oct. 2004. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.
<http://rmmla.wsu.edu/ereview/58.2/journals/baraban.asp>.
Charters, Ann. The
Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 8th ed. Boston, MA:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. Print.
"The
Monstrous Power of Speech in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of
Amontillado"/Edgar Allen Poe'nun 'The Cask of Amontillado' Adli Eserinde
Konusma Yeteneginin Devasal Gucu.(Montresor)(Critical Essay) - Interactions |
HighBeam Research." Review. Interactions 22 Mar. 2007. Research
- Articles - Journals | Research Better, Faster at HighBeam Research. Web.
14 Feb. 2012. <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-168090954.html>.
Why Montressor decided to kill his suppossed friend is hard to answer. But I do believe that it may have something to with the class system and maybe even a little bit of being insane. Montressor constantly stresses how much Fortunato will be missed at the festivites, which suggests that there are definetly some class differences between the two men. Despite not being told what happened to Montressor that made him so mad, we could infer that maybe it was class related. If that is the case Poe could be suggesting that the weight of class can drive us to the extremes, push us to levels of insanity that would justify chaining a man to a wall and and then bricking him in.
ReplyDeleteI thougth Montressor murdered Fortunato out of revenge because Fortunato did something/s to Montressor. The first two lines read "THE THOUSAND INJURIES of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge." I took this as his motive. Saying that Montressor did it out of class diffences never crossed my mind but I can see how people can make that conclusion. As for him being insane I thought that was a little far-fetched at first but over reviewing the story I started to see clues that could lead people to believe this. In my opinion all theories are valid!
ReplyDeleteThere is no reason for someone to murder to solve an arguement, but I do not believe Montressor is mad. I do believe that the social structure did have a reason for this murder though. Montressor states that Fortunato is unworthy of his reputation of "conissuer of wine" and Montressor is telling the truth. Fortunato says one of there acquaintances can't tell the difference between an amontillado and a sherry...and amontillado is a sherry. From this interaction I do believe that Montressor is lucid of his actions but by no means are they justified.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Montressor is, in fact, insane. An act of deceit, no matter how severe, should be paid for through an individual's death. I think he further proves his insanity by "echo[ing] Fortunato scream for scream, shrieking even louder than his victim.” However, for a brief moment Montressor shows a glimpse of stability by struggling over lifting the last brick and realizing his crime, but continues the wall after being reminded of the annoying jingling of Fortunato's cap. Through the insanity, nonetheless, Montressor shows his respect by naming his victim noble. If the murder had been committed out of societal indifference, I believe that as readers we would have been introduced to a more complex background of the characters.
ReplyDelete-Rachael Bollinger
When first reading the story I had no doubt that the reason Montressor murdered Fortunato was because he was insulted by Fortunato and vowed revenge. When I think insult, I think of being humiliated in front of people. Humiliation can cause people to do extreme things like murder. Furthermore, Poe mentions Montressor's family motto/crest about the snake biting the heal and the heal crushing it. If Montressor took that to the extreme that would be another reason for him to commit this murder. When reading the story a second time and reviewing it, I can agree that Montressor was possibly insane or just mad and not thinking so straight. I can see this with the ending were he mimics Fortunato even louder and possibly more aggresive then Fortunato said the words. However I cannot see how the murder would be out of class differences. That makes no sense to me at all. I do not believe there is enough information about Fortunato to think that.
ReplyDelete-Jake Perry
I can see where both of the ideas would pertain to the death of Fortunato. I believe Montressor’s efforts were due to social class conflict more than roots of insanity. Montressor was displeased with his “friend’s” ability to talk behind his back. Montressor felt betrayed and may have realized that others would have believed the word of Fortunato over his own. His way of seeking revenge was to get rid of Fortunato all together. I believe Montressor only wanted to scare Fortunato to enable him to realize the power Montressor held over the mind of Fortunato. Fortunato may hold a higher position in the social world, but Montressor was keen and agile over the mind of his fri-enemy.
ReplyDeleteI believe Montressor was insulted in someway by Fortunado and that's why he wanted revenge. However we don't know exactly what Fortunado did. This was my biggest question while reading the story. I didn't pick up on anything that lead me to believe he was insane, but that very well might be true (the way he murdered Fortuando was a bit insane). As Matt said, Poe wanted us readers to put the pieces of this mystery together and to create our own reasoning behind the murder of Fortunado.
ReplyDelete-Justin Sawka
I think that Montressor can be considered insane. The story made it very clear that Montressor was out to seek revenge on Fortunado, which is pretty disturbing considering that they are supposed to be "friends." I did not see any clues in the story that hinted towards a difference in class nor do I really see it as something used as motivation. Going off of Rachael's comment, I agree in the fact that I think if it had something to do with class, we would have learned more of the characters' backgrounds and social statuses.
ReplyDelete-Danielle Dunn
After reading your post, I do see that Montressor is insane. The example about how he laughs when he is building Fortunato in the wall shows that he is crazy. It would drive me crazy if I murdered someone and kept it in for years. This could also be an example of his insanity, that it does not bother him that he has kept this secret. Poe leaves the story open and we could come up with several different ideas of what is really going on. Poe has such a dark mind and could be writing about anything.
ReplyDelete-Amanda Bryan
I feel like the reason Montressor murdered Fortunato was out of pure revenge to being picked on for so long. Most of us have had a Fortunato in our lives in some way or another and we all wanted to see him or her get what was coming to them. Montressor sealed him into the wall and wanted to hear him call out for help and mercy but Fortunato refused to give him that last bit of satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Bahen
I also agree that Montressor is insane, but I believe he went insane because he was jealous of Fortunato and his class status. One can easily see that he is insane after simply mentioning that Montressor is seeking revenge simply because of an insult made by Fortunato, which is never mentioned in the story. By not including the insult in the story, I believe it gives the reader a chance to look into the idea that Montressor may have been so jealous of Fortunato's class status that he just couldn't take it anymore and wanted to murder him. In addition to that, I also agree that the reader can see how Montressor is insane based off of how he mocks Fortunato as previously mentioned in an earlier post. I find it interesting that class system and insanity may have been the motives for this murder of Fortunato.
ReplyDeleteEven though the story doesn't tell us why Montressor tried to kill Fortunato I like to believe the reasoning that he was crazy because I don't think that there's enough reasoning to kill him because of social class. The only other logical reason is to kill him because of being crazy.
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting question you brought up at the end, whether or not the class system could have fed into some sort of a mental disorder could lead into Montressor's murdering of the lower class. This point itself draws similarities to both the book and the movie American Psycho. The main character in American Psycho, a rich upper class person, begins with murdering homeless people and prostitutes. In both cases the social system allowed the men to get away with murder, which played into an obvious psychological deficiency.
ReplyDelete-Carlos Rivera
Even though there may have been problems between class systems, I do not think that it justifies the murder of Fortunato. I think that the manner in which Montressor acted and his complete lack of remorse showed that he did, indeed, suffer from some kind of mental instability. An insult is not a justifiable reason to kill a person. The way in which he killed him furthers my point of view. Instead of a quick death, he killed him slowly and listened to his screams the entire time. None of this seemed to bother him and he did not show any regret for his actions.
ReplyDeleteCan you really put the blame on the class system? the class system didnt lead Fortunato into the cellar and chain him up and then leave him for dead. the class system didnt brick up the entrance. that was all Montressor. Montressor wanted to be noticed more, so he took out his competition, and to get back Fortunato, because made fun of him. But that is no reason to kill another man. that is a evil thing to do, people are evil.
ReplyDelete