Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Does the story "The Cask of Amontillado" give hints to the thousand injuries that Montresor has suffered?

In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," Montressor
is using extreme exaggeration (hyperbole, verbal irony) when he
says:



THE
thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could ; but when he ventured upon
insult, I vowed
revenge.



Montressor provides
neither the injuries nor the insult in the story, which makes us believe that it is the
other way around (Montressor is delivering all injuries and insults).  Indeed,
Montressor is more than a bit paranoid--to the point of mania.  His overdeveloped
sensitivities (regarding his family code of revenge: "I must not only punish, but punish
with impunity") have lead him to imagine these violations, and his elaborate plan of
revenge reveals signs of his own mental illness.  It seems that family reputation (which
prides in revenge) has driven him to look for signs of insult that--to an average
person--are unintended or non-existent.


At worst, Fortunato
is guilty of drunkenness, which is a self-induced injury that should not offend
Montressor.  In fact, Fortunato's drunkenness plays into Montressor's plan of revenge.
 Perhaps Fortunato is materialistic in his connoisseurship of wine: he must have it at
all costs.  This too plays into the plan, but it is not an overt
threat.


Nothing from Fortunato's statements in the story
lead us to believe even a hint of malice by him toward the narrator.  Sure, he forgets
Montressor's coat of arms and family motto.  Big deal.  Sure, he insults Lechesi,
calling him an "ignoramus," but this should not offend our narrator.  In the end,
Fortunato remains completely oblivious of Montressor's intentions and his
fate.


No, the thousand injuries and insults are indeed
delivered by Montressor, not Fortunato, which makes this story a classic tale of
motiveless revenge and extreme paranoia.

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