Essay Database

Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" is a carefully crafted tale about revenge. The story takes place in Italy during carnival festivities. Montresor is our sinister narrator who explains how his friend, Fortunato, has deeply insulted him. The reader is never told what Fortunato did to make Montresor want to kill him, so we don't really know if the main character is reliable or not. All we know is that Montresor wants Fortunato dead, …

…him. Ultimately, Montresor takes pleasure in torturing Fortunato psychologically as well as physically. Montresor appears frustrated in the end when Fortunato dies prematurely because he wants to continue having his fun at Fortunato's expense. He is not content with just killing Fortunato but must also make an absolute fool out of him as well. Poe thus luminously uses irony to reveal character in one of the classic and most memorable stories of nineteenth-century American literature.