The Cask of Amontillado - Research Paper Example

12th March, The Cask of Amontillado The “The Cask of Amontillado” is a cold blooded murder story where a person takes revenge, in the form of brutal murder, against another person who had insulted him. In the story, Montresor holds grudge against Fortunado, for insulting him, and he vents out his anger by killing him brutally. The story title “The cask of Amontillado” means the “Casket of Death” which reflects how Fortunado brought upon himself death due to his desire for a cask of wine, as we shall see in this paper. The narrator of the story, Montresor, starts the story by expressing his grudge that he has been insulted by his acquaintance and that he wants to seek revenge for the insult. So, during a carnival season, Montresor wearing a black mask persuade Fortunado to drink Amontillado which is a Spanish sherry. Being heavily intoxicated, Fortunado walk himself to the death. The story is about a love – hate relationship. In the story, the narrator is trying to portray the psychological complexities of these opposite emotion, emphasizing the way they enigmatically blend into each other. The story is about revenge, insult and death. Montresor loves himself and he cannot stand the insult by Fortunado; the self-love led Montresor to attempt murder. The death is ironic in the story as it is brought about by much desirable wine “Amontillado”. The wine enabled Montreso to entice Fortunado into death. Montreso persuades Fortunado into the dark recesses of the family catacombs and promises to offer a delicate wine. Here, the desire of wine led to the death of Fortunado. The Meaning of the Title The title “The Cask of the Amontillado” of the story by Edgar Allan Poe has foreshadowing metaphor. The title of this grim story has an unusual ring to it. This is a strange title which we have not heard before. What does “Amontillado” literally mean? Actually, Amantillado is an alcoholic beverage something similar to Sherry. Only when people read the story they realize that it is a Spanish wine. Cask, by the way, is barrels in which wines are stored traditionally. Cask comes in many sizes. In the story, Montreso tells Fortunato, he has a “pipe of what passes for Amontillado”. In this context, “cask” also means “casket”. In the story, the Fortunado seeking a “cask of Amontillado” finds a “casket of death”. Here Montreso in an attempt to murder Fortunado seeks a way to lure him. Montreso thought that the best way to entice Fortunado into getting into his trap was to lure him with an exotic wine. Here, Fortunados desire for a wine leads him to his death. So the cask here is the casket and death in the form of wine. Fortunado was made to drink a large amount of wine and was slipped into death. Fussamo states that, “the famous cask of Amontillado allowed Fortunado to slip into a niche without difficult” ( Fussamo). The title of the story which is “The Cask of Amontillado” has an ironic meaning. The Death in the title In the story the death is brought about with the help of “Amontillado”. Fortunado is a wine connoisseur and had been the victim of Montresor .The death came about by a wine which is usually a drink to give health. Montreso was insulted many times by Fortunado and this led to his death. Montreso meets Fortunado in a costume of clown and he tells him that what he has in possession is a pipe of Amontillado, which is a rare dry sherry, and he wants to test its genuiness. Fortunado being a wine taster accepts his invitation and goes ahead to obey whatever Montreso tells him. Here wine is the main tool which helped Fortunado to seek his revenge. Fortunado had cough and Montreso pretended to care for him. However Fortunado proceeded to taste the wine with his strong passion and desire for the wine. Poe describes this development in clear details: The wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled. My own fancy grew warm with the Medoc My own fancy grew warm with the Medoc. We had passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs. I paused again, and this time I made bold to seize Fortunato by an arm above the elbow."The nitre!" I said; "see, it increases. It hangs like moss upon the vaults. We are below the rivers bed. The drops of moisture trickle among the bones. Come, we will go back ere it is too late. Your cough --" (Poe 185). This desire for the desirable wine made Fortunado to drink himself to his death and the cask of Amontillado necessarily meant the casket of death for Fortunado. The Cask as a Casket The cask in the story necessarily means the casket on entrapment. The cask is entrapment of death in the form of wine. The cask is the dark dungeon in which Fortunado is tied up to death forever. The cask of Amontiallado actually is a cask which contains the death of fortunado. The cask is filled with wine and this wine leads Fortunado to death. So the title “Cask of amontillado” of the story very well reflects the topic. The author did not deliver the title by an accident; the title is indeed quite apt for this story. The title give the readers a clue about what is about to follow. The choice of words in the title therefore has a tremendous impact on the story. In the story it is the cask which leads Fortunado into the casket. Jacoby stated that Montresor’s way of murdering Fortunado through slow suffocating death was to trap Fortunado and kill him in solitude and to aggravate his injury (Jacoby 30-31)). Montresor was indeed very smart in planning and executing his goal. Here we can see that the cask was dawning upon Fortunado as a trap of death. The wine in the case was a casket filled with death in the form of wine. So the cask in the meaning aptly reflects the death of Fortunado which this story is all about. Amontillado as the death In this story, the title “Amontillado” represents death. It is amontillado the wine which brought about death to Fortunado. It was also a weapon used by the Montreso to murder his victim. It was a sweet and intoxicating revenge. Fortunado being a wine connoisseur gave Montreso good chance to use wine as a weapon to kill him. Montroso uses wine as an invitation for killing Fortunado, and this plot worked perfectly as Fortunado does not suspect Montresor even to the slightest level. The wine, which is the reason for the death of Fortunado, reflects the topic in the title quite aptly. By offering wine to Amontiallado, Montreso gives a toast which is led to the death of Fortunado. In Christian theology, Amontillado is the blood of Jesus Christ in the Holy Communion. In the pursuit of Amontillado, Fortunado taste the fruit of his sin and get salvation through death. The wine is the cause of the intoxicating death, the theme of death runs in the whole story. Wine has been a desire of Fortunado, and this leads him to his death. The title of this story as wine is therefore quite apt; this title therefore is a critical symbol in this story. When one read the title they can understand that the wine is going to play an important part in the story. Because of Amontillado, Montreso could calmly and easily lure fortunado to death. Hence amontillado is the killer in the story with the help of Montreso’s intelligence. Garrity explains that Fortunado did not want to miss a chance of drinking fine wine that Montresor had promised him (Garrity 117) .This passion for wine would make Fortunado to accept Montresor’s invitation .We can see here that Montresor uses the reverse psychology to entrap Fortunado. Conclusion The story “The Cask of Amontillado” has a title which aptly reflects its topic. Even though the first impression gives ambiguity to the topic of the story, once we read it things become clear. The wine is all around the story and cask invariably is related to it. The cask as a symbol of the casket and Amontillado as the luring wine of death are apt terms for the title for the story. The story is all about death and cask is a sarcastic title given by author to the entrapment of death. By reading the story, we can understand that the death was trapped inside the cask in the form of wine. The Montresor is the avenger in the story and plans an ironical death for his victim. The story is reflecting wine as an intoxicating death drink which traps the victim. Frank is of the opinion that “The Cask of Amontillado” is one of the Poe’s most popular short stories and has fine story narration (Frank 65). Reading through this story, of course bears out the Fredrick’s opinion on this story. The symbols that the author used in this story helped him to easily achieve his goal; for instance, the amontillado being a much desired exotic wine served the purpose of luring Fortunado into his death. Montreso could easily get the attention of Fortunado with the help of a cask of Amontillado. The cask of Amontillado means the casket of death for both the characters. The symbol of the Cask as the Casket of death was also a very fitting symbol for this because it helps to pass across the intended message in a very effective manner. As we have already seen, for Montreso, it is offering a casket of death while for Fortunado it was entrapping in the casket of death and both with the help of cask of Amontillado. So the title reflects the topic in a direct as well as in a satirical sense. Works Cited Frank, F. S. The Poe Encyclopedia. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997. Print. Fussamo, S. D. "The mysterious revenge in “The Cask of Amontillado”. Web. Retrieved on, 4/3/2014. From: . Garrity, N. R. Classic Middle School Literature: Mystery. New Jersey: Good Year Books, 2000. . Print. Jacoby, J. "Fortunato’s Premature Demise in “The Cask of Amontillado”." Poe Studies 12.2 (1979). Print. Poe, E. A. The Cask of Amontillado. Minnesota: The Creative Company, 2008. Print. Read More