Monday, August 27, 2007
Poe's "Food For Thinking?"
Verbal irony occurs when a character says one thing but means another, as when Montressor greets his friend (whose name means "fortunate") with the words "My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met." How does Poe's use of verbal irony in The Cask of Amontillado impact your evaluation of Montresor? His state of mind, and his actions? Is he evil? Is he insane? Support your opinion with evidence from the text.
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13 comments:
It seems to me that Montresor can't make up his mind. It says:
"The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge."
Yet it later says:
"The niter!" I said, "see, it increases. It hangs like moss upon the vaults. We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among the bones. Come, we will go back ere it is too late. Your cough" --.
This makes me think that he wants to have an excuse to not kill Fortunato. Ergo, he is not what I would consider, evil. He would be considered a disgrace to the "dark forces" of literature.
When Montresor says:
"Pass your hand," I said, "over the wall; you cannot help feeling the niter. Indeed it is very damp. Once more let me implore you to return. No? Then I must positively leave you. But I must first render you all the little attentions in my power."
Somehow he strikes me as insane when he says this.
When he says this:
"In pace requiescat."
I wonder, why would he say "may he rest in peace"? Is it because he doesn't want the ghost of Fortunato to haunt him? Or is it because he regrets his actions of killing Fortunato?
All together, he isn't a very reliable character, or narrator.
I would say that he is insane or not correctly put together for the awfull thing he does to fortunato. yet he regrets his actions he would still be out of mind to go through with such a thing. " may he rest in peace" i think he still feels good that he killed him just trying to justify himself!
i think MOntresor is still a very nasty man for what he did but he was nice 2 Frotunato even when he hated him so thats some big pionts. He is kind of a carzy guy who no one really likes and he really cant control his actions becuase not a lot of poeple say they are going to kill some and and really do it you know.
yes i do think he is evil becuase like i said not a lot of poeple do things like that its just crazy.
oh yeah baby he is insane he needs to learn how 2 cope with his anger besides killing someone. For example, try talking to the guy adn tell him to stop doing what ever he was doing.
I think Montresor is insane. He keeps going back and fourth on the decision to kill Fortunato or not! He is ready to kill him at one moment, but then the next he is offering to take Fortunato back becasue of Fortunato's cough. I think he should've talked to Fortunato about the way he was feeling because then they could've prevented some of this anger coming from Montresor. Im sure Fortunato would become much more aware of the situation and be more careful! I think killing your 'friend' would be considered insane!
Well, i totally agree with what Nicole has to say. Montresor is truely looking for excuses to not go through with his plan. Take one example, while upon entering the crypt, Montresor notices Fortunado's slightly severe cough. Montresor then asks Fortunado if he wants to go back. Now, seems like for someone that has the plan to kill someone wouldn't say something like that. Why would throw his plan down the drain. Is that just another excuse to not kill him. This definatly confuses me for sure. To me, the need to kill someone in my opinion defintly comes from a situation far more intense then just something that was said to you. Is Montresor truely the evil one? Was he just a cruel murderer out for some innocent man? Was Montresor using some harsh words that were said to him a motif? This does not make sense. Did he regret killing him? What was the true motif, the true story behind this all.
I beleave that montrosor is a very cleaver man beacuse by not showing any emotion.I also beleave that he is a very cleaver man to give him wine so that he would not ask to many questions as to what they were doing so that he could go on with out any trouble. In doing this he is not insane but he is evil. How, its simple, killing a man for revenge. I wouldn't kill a man for revenge i would mearly embarrass him in public or make the rest of there life terrable for them for revenge. But fortunado also made a big mistake by not turning back when he had the chance. But he couldn't because of being drunk form the wine. I think that this is one of the strangest but one of the smartest short stories from Poe.
Montresor is clearly insane. At first he thinks that it's his destiny to kill fortunato just because he insulted him. We really don't know if the insult was horrible or something easy to fix, but for some wacky reason, montresor feels the need. then when Fortunato starts to cough, it seems montresor is having second thoughts. all through out the journey to the end of the catacombs, he seems to be having these second thoughts. If Fortunato was as smart as Montresor said he was, wouldn't you think that the bodies lying around would tell him something? or was fortunato drunk? When they got to the small room that was soon to be fortunato's grave, and Montresor chains him up, fortunato says "hehehe an excellent jest" was it from the drinking or did fortunato really think montresor was his friend? but when montresor had to put the last brick in the wall, he cried out "Fortunato, Fortunato!" and there was no answer, you could easily tell that he was trying to make the reader feel bad for him. that makes him clearly insane.
The irony in this story is very humorous in a certain way that each time somthing is said, it seems to happen. I think Montresor can't make up his mind about what he wants to do for sure. He is always saying, my dear friend, and all these caring sayings, but then underneath it all he is full of angst and seems to want Fortunado dead. He seems to be thinking much more evil then we can see on the outside but his actions are subtle but in the end are very hurtful. Montresor, to me, is very evil and insane. I think this because someone who shows this much affection toward a friend and then just stabs him in the back is not a friend at all. Anyone who can actually murder someone that they have known and shared laughs with, doesn't seem like a person that would be very "normal".
I think Montresor isn't evil but he might be on the insane side. His actions against Fortunato are cruel and mean but he isnt evil. I thought Poe described irony very well when Fortunato say "Let us go on and first another draft of Medoc" which is almost like saying he is having a toast to his own death.
I think Montresor is a little insane because he's nice to Fortunato and acts like his friend, but all the while he is thinking about Fortunato's unfortunate situation in which he will be murdered. He also seems like his conscience is telling him not to do it which is probably the reason why he is having second thoughts about killing Fortunato. He must have a lot of 'What if's' in his mind. "What if he finds out? What if I get caught?" etc.
I think Poe uses irony in the story for the character Montresor in the sentence: "My dear fortunato, you are lukily met." because Montresor already has this terrible plan all thought up to murder Fortunato.
I don't think Montresor is crazy because the text said that he took careful planning to come up with a way to murder Fortunato when a crazy person I don't think would be as careful. In all, i just think he's evil.
I think that Montresor was insane. Unless the insult that Fortunato. did or said was so bad that he thoguth he had to. But also the way he killed him seemed eerie to me. He also was having second thoughts when he asked Fortunato if he wanted to turn back, or maybe he wanted Fortunato to take fate into his own hands.
we will never know
I agree with brett and nicole on this question. Montresor did believe he had to kill Fortunado but in the end I believe that he is trying to find ways to get out of it. Near the end, when Montresor is almost done bricking the wall you could tell he had a lot of regret about wat he already did. So at the end when he screams Fortunado's name you can tell he partly wants to get him out of there. But because there was no answer he knew it was final and he could not change it.
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