The cask of amontillado is astory of revenge. montresor,the villainous narrator of this story vowed to avenge insults he received by administering death to fortunato. montressor proved himself to be the aggressor because of the way he plotted and excuted his plan to eliminate fortnnato.the reasoc behind montresor’s villainous behavior is somewhat understates montressor is a very unreliable narrator claiming that he suffered,”the thousand injuries of fortunato i had borne as best as i could”,9750.This statement that montresor made is not only exaggeration, but also leads us to wonder if their was another motive behind montresor’s actions. Upon reading this story i realized that i could not believe montressor descriptive ways of how fortunato criticized and humiliated him. we as the reader do not know what causes this line of insults from fortunato. montressor could have initiated this kind of behaviour that he received; it is only best to be speculative about this because there is not hard evidence that points out without bais the true aggressor.
The way montressor executed his brilliant plan was to lure fortunato to his home saying that he wanted him to sample a wine by the name of amontillado. The reason behind this was that he knew that fortunato was also a connoisseur of wines.We continue to see the devious mind of montressor at work and also how ironic his compassion for fortunato was. ”Come,” i said,with decision, ”we will go back your health is precious.You are rich ,respected ,admired,beloved,you are happy as i once was”(77). In the paragraph above montressor’s compassion for fortunato is a first rate reverse psychology in progress. Montressor anticipated that if he appeared to be fortunato friend who cared about his health, his plan would be flawless. It is known that montressor wanted to avenge fortunato ,but their is no indication of when this would take place so this leave us to believe that the carnival created the atmosphere for fortunato to be drunk, therefore allowingf Montressor to move forward with his plan to murder fortunato.
By the end of Poe’s story, montressor has gotten his revenge against unspecting fortunato ,whose taste for wine led him to his death. Once again we are reminded of the coat of arms and the the montresor family motto. The insignia is symbolic of montressor’s evil character, which like the serpent intends to get revenge.
