The Cask of Amontillado

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor wanted to engage the readers by telling us the story of how he killed his friend, Furtunato, to seek revenge for a grudge he held towards him. Knowing that Furtunato’s weakness is wine, Montresor manipulated him into insisting to verify the Amontillado. He then led Furtunato into his vault filled with nitre and left him to fall into his death. Montresor’s motivation to killed Furtunato and telling us how he was killed was articulated in several ways.

Montresor illustrated his motivation to tell the reader his story through the quote, “You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat.” He wanted his readers to know what kind of person he is by introducing them to his demeanor. He signified that he will no longer be able to handle the insults he was given to by Fortunato, therefore he must avenge himself by taking away Fortunato’s life. Montresor told the readers his goals and introduced us to Fortunato before he tells the story of how he got killed. He wanted to get the readers to be interested in his story before actually telling the story itself.

The quote “He had a weak point--this Fortunato--although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared” foreshadows that death of Fortunato will involve in wine. Montresor is motivated to kill Fortunato because he planned to use Fortunato’s weakness against him. Although Fortunato was a man who holds great power that people “respected and feared,” he was easily lured into Montreso’s plot because Montreso knew of his weakness towards wine.

We could tell that Montreso’s motif was well planned when he stated, “I had told them that I should not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. “ He made his