“I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is redressed when retribution overtakes its redresser” (Poe 935).
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is one of literature’s greatest stories of revenge. Poe succeeds in terrifying his audience through the use of basic human emotions. Feelings of anger, resentment and a need to right a wrong are feelings that every person has had at one time or another. No one can deny the fact that revenge is sweet - however, it is also not without consequence. The difference between a sane and insane person is that one recognizes these consequences and does not act while the other disregards morality and makes rash decisions. The character of Montresor is clearly insane as he commits a horrific crime to “avenge” (Poe 945) an issue with Fortunato. However, what is truly frightening is that Poe characterizes Montresor as a man who shows no remorse for his actions, leaving him without an ounce of humanity. Montresor can not recognize that there are ways to go about revenge that are clever and even humorous and come with no dire consequence. Although we can consider Montresor the protagonist of this story, he is by no means a righteous man; by the end of “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor has proved that he is a man with no dignity and nothing more than a murderer.
1 comment:
Your posting is well said and interesting. Thank you. –LN
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