The Cask of Amontillado
Rohina, Allie, Rehan, and Rakhi
Summary
The narrator begins to tell the reader that Fortunado has hurt him and betrayed his trust, and the narrator has planned to take revenge on him. The narrator meets Fortunado, a very skilled expert in wine and its authencity, who also happens to be very drunk when in the spirit for an upcoming celebration. The narrator had found an rare barrel of a unique wine, or Amantillado, and has asked Fortunado to define its authenticity. The wine is stored in an underground graveyard, also known as the catacombs and the narrator leads Fortunado deeper into the catacomb, getting him drunker and drunker along the way. Fortunado then walks into this man-sized hole, and the narrator begins to chain Fortuando against the walls. Soon, he fills the opening with a stack of bricks, until there is one brick left. He uses the last brick to make Fortunado beg him for mercy, yet he puts it and leaves Fortunado there to die. The narrator finally explains the whole incident occurred nearly half a century ago, and has been told ever since.
So What
Exaggeration and stretching limits, as previously stated, make Poe's stories what they are. When you think about it, it is the gruesome, seemingly inhumane facets of his masterpieces that set them apart. If it wasn't in this dark setting, it would be indistinguishable from other author's writing. Whenever he stretches the environment and the actions of a person, it morphs into this new type of writing. So rather than composing a story about a normal human, or even an exaggerated good-guy, he takes our flaws and exploits them by making them see grotesque and unreal.
Text Evidence
"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" (Poe 1).
Here Poe is exemplifying the limits of our humanity. When something doesn't go our way, we tend to take it to extremes. Take whenever you step on something, say a Lego. Your immediate reaction is pain, and then typically an angry phrase that expresses your wish for 'all of the little plastic demons to burn'. It seems extreme, and you really don't mean it (exaggeration). The only difference here is that the character actually DID continue his plan, ultimately killing Fortuanto.
"THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge" (Poe 1).
It is highly unlikely that this man had to bear 1,000 injuries from Fortunato. He is exaggerating the amount to prove his point. He is trying to justify his actions, and make sense of what he did, or will do. And when someone insults you, that may send you over the edge, but not to the point of killing someone. Poe likes to take our limits as humans and stretch them, making all of his stories involve some form of exaggeration,and more importantly, frighten us as to what we as humans are capable of doing in the right, yet extreme, conditions.
Literary Element
Interpretation
Exaggeration is used greatly and effectively in this story. The whole story is primarily based on an exaggeration; it’s the fact Montesor reached the certain extent of killing Fortunado instead of communicating about his issue with him. In most cases humans would talk it out and move on, but Monstressor was so mad about what Fortunado had done to him, that it inclined him to kill Fortunado in such a cruel and heartless way.