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What is the main character seeking in The Cask of Amontillado?
The main character, Montresor , is seeking revenge on Fortunato for insults and injuries, which Montresor believes Fortunato has committed against him. These injuries and insults may be real or just imagined by Montresor .
What is The Cask of Amontillado all about?
It is about a man named Montressor, who was insulted by another man named Fortunato, who is equally as rich as he is. He decides to take revenge on Fortunato by using Fortunato's weakness ---- his pride in being an expert on wine. He tells Fortunato he has a bottle of Amontillado but isn't sure if it's real or a fraud. Montressor brings Fortunato into his basement where all of his dead ancestors are buried and where his wine cellar is. Montressor repeatedly says that Fortunato is too sick to go into the basement and insists that another friend can go down into the basement to check if the Amontillado is real. Fortunato refuses and is tricked into a corner deep in the basement. Montressor chains Fortunato to the wall and builds a brick wall sealing Fortunato in the basement. Montressor's code of arms says says "We will not be without revenge." Fortunato dies behind the wall and is never found again. Supposedly it is a partially true story because during Poe's era, they found a body chained to a wall in a wine cellar in the same area this story took place.
What are some character traits in 'The Cask of Amontillado'?
Some devices are:Foreshadowing: The various sets of bones throughout the passageway Montresor takes Fortunato through foreshadow Fortunato future as being another pile of bones just like the ones they are passing.Irony: Fortunato's name is ironic because being murdered is not the most fortunate thing a person can wish for. He is also ironic because he is dressed in a fool's costume yet believes himself to be quite knowledgeable in wines and Montresor will use that belief to fool Fortunato into the cellar to his doom.Imagery: Montresor points to the nitre on the walls of the cellar describing it as weblike and hanging like moss.Symbolism: Montresor's family crest and motto reflect the fact that they will tolerate no insult and will punish anyone who insults the family. This is a symbol of Montresor's frame of mind and of his ultimate intention.Pun: Montresor makes a play on the words 'Freemason' and 'mason.' Fortunato states that he is of the brotherhood of Freemason, who are also called 'Masons' for short. Montresor states that he too is a 'mason.' Fortunato asks Montresor for the secret sign to show that Montresor is also a Freemason. Montresor produces a trowel instead. The trowel is the tool a mason, meaning a bricklayer, would use to build a brick wall. Montresor is about to build that brick wall that will soon seal Fortunato in the cellar for at least 50 years. (Isn't it ironic that of all the descriptions of literary devices here, the one with the most words is for the device with the fewest letters?)
What is the difference between an injury and an insult in 'The Cask of Amontillado'?
The reader never finds out. In fact, it is possible that the insults Montresor talks about are all part of his deranged imagination and not real at all. Two indications of this are that Montresor never does give specifics and Fortunato greets Montresor in a friendly manner and happily agrees to test the Amontillado. This is not the behavior of a person who has given thousands of insults to Montresor.
Why does Montresor want revenge in The Cask of Amontillado?
According to Montresor's opening comments he has suffered a thousand injuries at the hands of Fortunato but now Fortunato has also insulted him. However, it is not clear if these injuries and insults are real or imagined. He gives no details and later Fortunato greets him in a very friendly way, offers to leave the carnival to test the wine for Montressor and insists on continuing through the passageway in the cellar. Although Fortunato is partly driven by his own pride and vanity, these are hardly the actions of a person who has committed a thousand injuries and insults against Montressor.
What is the exposition in 'The Cask of Amontillado'?
The exposition of a story is that part that gives the background for the story to put everything into proper context. In The Cask of Amontillado, the exposition is the part where Montresor seems to be confessing or at least relating the incidents of 50 years ago when he got revenge against Fortunato for the many insults, real or imagined, Fortunato had made against Montresor. Montresor explains his need to gain revenge in a way that won't be discovered but that it will be clear to Fortunato that his past insults are now being avenged. Once Montresor explains that he intends to gain his vengeance on Fortunato, it remains to be seen just how Montresor will not only punish Fortunato, but punish him with impunity.
What are the symbols in The Cask of Amontillado?
Montresor's family crest indicates that his family will tolerate no insult. This is a symbol of Montressor's frame of mind because all along he intends to get revenge on Fortunato for the many , real or imagined, insults Fortunato has given him.
What is the narrator's family crest in 'The Cask of Amontillado'?
The coat of arms gives us a reason to understand why Montresor is so unforgiving in getting revenge from Fortunato. The picture on the coat of arms is one of a golden foot crushing a snake which has its fangs imbedded in the heal of the foot. The motto of the Montresors is ""Nemo me impune lacessit." In English this means no one punishes me and gets away with it. Fortunato had evidently insulted Montresor's name at some point. Just as his family coat of arms says, no one will punish or insult him and get away with it. The picture reinforces that image. A human foot is crushing a snake that has just bitten the foot. Evidently, Montresor considers Fortunato to be the snake, and Montresor is the foot that is soon to crush and kill him.
What motivates Montresor's actions?
His motive is revenge. In the short story "The Cask of Amontillado' by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor explains his motive for revenge against Fortunato thus: THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled - but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
Why did montresor wait 50 years to say why he killed fortunato?
Montresor's motive, as a character in the story, for telling of this event is not made clear. Some critics postulated that he is confessing his crime to a friend or even a priest, but there is nothing in the story itself to prove this. As a literary device, however, the use of the 'flashback' manner of telling a story can be effective to bring out the character's feeling and perception of the events in the story. For one thing, the only way the reader is assured that Montresor has exacted the perfect revenge is by a flashback. Montresor states in the opening that a wrong is not avenged unless the avenger is not caught and the person who has committed the offense knows he is paying for it now. If the story took place in present time, the reader would never know whether Fortunato somehow escaped his fate or whether Montresor got away with it. But, with Montresor telling the story fifty years later and confirming that the wall behind which Fortunato now rests has been undisturbed for half a century, it is clear that Fortunato is dead and that Montresor got away with it.
What is real and unreal?
REAL : that can be experienced by the physical senses
When was There Is No Real Courage Unless There Is Real Danger created?
There Is No Real Courage Unless There Is Real Danger was created in 2004.
