The Cask of Amontillado

“The Cask of Amontillado”

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“The Cask of Amontillado”

Revenge should be served as cold as possible to ensure the offender feels the effects. This seems to be the message that Edgar Allan Poe wants to deliver in his short story titled “The Cask of Amontillado”. However, after reading the author’s masterpiece, one is left with the question, just how far should revenge go? Based on the circumstances surrounding the revenge in the story, Montresor does not acquire proper revenge on Fortunato. He just overreacts. To get a perspective of the story, the paper will begin by summarizing the short story by the author and the theme of revenge in the narration.

“The Cask of Amontillado” is a gothic horror story that about the narrator’s quest for revenge against his colleague, Fortunato. The story is narrated by Monstressor who plots revenge against a man who had offended him. It is important to note that the kinds of insults are not said. All that the narrator says is that he had endured a thousand insults from Fortunato, and he sought revenge. In the story, Monstressor who is the main character and also the villain sends his servants away to the carnivore so that he could deliver his revenge against Fortunato without being seen. So, on the day, Monstressor tells Fortunato that he has a cask of wine called Amontillado that he would like him to taste. Not knowing about the ill intentions of the narrator, Fortunato follows him into the vaults to taste the wine. However, after reaching the vaults, Monstressor ties Fortunato and locks him in the vaults by erecting a wall, therefore burying him alive regardless of the cries for mercy that Fortunato gives.

From the story, one of the reasons why the revenge was not proper is that the accusations against Fortunato are not of a magnitude that warrants death. According to the narrator, he was offended by the many insults against him by Fortunato. However, he does not mention any of the accusations. Therefore, the gravity of the allegations is subjected to his judgment alone. Revenge by definition is indeed inflicting pain to someone who has done you harm. Therefore, it is only logical that the pain inflicted should be proportional to the pain caused by the offender. In the story, even though his colleague hurt Monstressor, the pain did not result in the death of anyone. Therefore, what he does to Fortunato is murder rather than revenge. The truth is Montresor only uses revenge as an excuse to kill someone that he hates.

Another reason why the revenge exerted by Monstressor is an overreaction is that unlike what had been done to him; his action was so negative that he had to hide while doing it. From the story, the narrator says that he sent his servants to the carnivore. This was to make sure that they did not witness the actions of murder that he wanted to commit against his fellow man. Also, the narrator avoids following the normal channels of getting justice against the offender and takes the matter into his own hands. In rational societies, revenge is acquired by using the judiciary that uses the facts surrounding the need for revenge to prescribe the way forward rather than subjectivity. In the case of Allan Poe’s story, the main character disregards the lawful and open ways of acting and goes into a lot of trouble to craft murder of a person he considers his emissary. Therefore the revenge was unfair.