Revenge

Paper Summary:

The paper portrays how Poe uses revenge to bring about many responses from the reader, including horror, fear and revulsion. The paper illustrates how by planting revenge so deeply within the plot and characters, Poe creates a truly terrifying tale that also makes many points about human nature. The paper discusses how Montresor's appetite for revenge is insane; it leads him to kill Fortunato. The paper shows how if Montresor truly regrets his hasty and bizarre revenge on Fortunato, Poe may be alluding to revenge even where we do not expect it. Perhaps, through a lifetime of guilt and forced secrecy, it is Fortunato who has actually taken revenge on Montresor in the end.

From the Paper:

"From the very beginning, Montresor is portrayed as the more petty and jealous man than Fortunato, even though it is Montresor who tells the story. Hearing the story from this point of view allows the reader to understand how Montresor justified his own actions in the murder of Fortunato. Fortunato's very name, meaning fortune and luck, implies that he is the fortunate one, a wide contrast to the unfortunate Montresor (Gruesser 129). In fact, when Fortunato refers to his wife as Lady Fortunato, he is saying that he is married to Lady Luck, a not so subtle metaphor (Benton 435)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Benton, Richard P. "The Cask of Amontillado: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction, 1st ed. Ed. Noelle Watson. New York: St. James Press, 1994. 435-437.
• Gruesser, John. "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'" The Explicator 56.3 (1998): 129-130.
• Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of Amontillado." Literature for Composition: Essays, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 7th ed. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. New York: Longman, 2005. 96-100.

More papers on Revenge:

• Analytical Essay # 130724 : "Revenge and Betrayal in Hamlet"
• Analytical Essay # 83535 : "Revenge in Shakespeare's "Hamlet"
• Essay # 73790 : "Hamlet: The Psychology of Revenge"
• Analytical Essay # 1692 : "Hamlet's Revenge"

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