The cask of Amontillado by Allen Poe

by Sanaa El  Alaoui

            This short story is  about revenge and murder and written with great art as it contains

narration ) the voice of Allen Poe (  , precision ) related literary words(   pace ) continuous rhythm in

telling this brilliant story (  and conflict with two everlasting protagonists .

            Surely , this story is narrated by Poe without giving us  a clue why Montresor wants to kill

Fortunato , two symbolic names carefully chosen by the writer art of telling his story . Fortunato is

an  ironic name that stands for fortune and luck   . In the contrary, Fortunato has no chance to escape

from a terrible death already plotted by Montresor . Montresor is also an ironic name, which means

secret treasure and surely Montresor is too much secretive and an inner person motivated by

revenge and murder and this is revealed by him in this confusing sentence “ The Thousand of

Fortunato I has borne as best I could ; but he ventured upon consult , I vowed revenge “ it means

that Montresor is a well educated person, positioned in good stature , I am injured many times by

Fortunto . Although in filmic adaptations, some filmmakers depicts Fortunato as a slave or valet ) see this link ( . 

            It really depends on how one reads this powerful story .Filmmakers or screenwriters write and

rewrite Allen Poe story according to their own imagination and of course, styles vary in treating the

theme, the structure and the plot of the story.

             In the structure of the story, Montresor works out a plan very carefully to murder Fortunato ,

he must take him to the vault , already a metaphoric place of darkness and buried death of the family

In my point of view , this is the major inciting incident that motivates the writer to lead the

protagonist to the vault . By the way, Montresor is an evil man , an opponent and an antagonist in

the story .

              We have conflict between two characters .One is very drunk, fortunato , and Montrsor  is the master mind of plotting the death of his mate . The mysterious journey takes awhile as Montrsor

tries to convince Fortunato to taste the wine of Amontilado . Fortunado is a man of vanity and pride it is his secret weakness , while Fortunato is a rich man who believes in himself . He knows that his  deed will succeed .He suggests that there is a much better connoisseur for tasting wine and of course  Fortunato , because of his pride, he says that he is the best  connoisseur to taste wine , and  this is  exactly what Montresor wants to hear from his enemy, choosing his own death .

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