Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" is all about who has power over who (at least in Montresor's mind, that is). At the beginning of the famous short story, we learn from Montresor, the narrator, that he feels Fortunato has crossed him many times in the past, but recently Fortunato has crossed the line and done something that Montresor cannot forgive.
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.
Before the story starts, Fortunato has the upper hand in their relationship being the insulter rather than the insulted, but it is clear that Montresor intends to change that (and he very well does).
When they first meet up in the story, Montresor makes Fortunato think that they're still on good terms, complimenting him on his knowledge of wine, and never letting a hint drop that he's still seething about the unspecified "insult". As the story moves on, we realize that Montresor's revenge is trapping Fortunato in his catacombs to die. Montresor lets the false niceties fall away, and Fortunato can see his true nature: calculating, cruel, and possibly insane.
So, their relationship shifts from that of false friendship (which might never have been real friendship in the first place, given how much Montresor hates Fortunato), to that of a revenger who has total power over his victim.
Friday, February 10, 2012
How does the relationship shift between Montresor and Fortunato?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
There are a plethora of rules that Jonas and the other citizens must follow. Again, page numbers will vary given the edition of the book tha...
-
The poem contrasts the nighttime, imaginative world of a child with his daytime, prosaic world. In the first stanza, the child, on going to ...
-
The given two points of the exponential function are (2,24) and (3,144). To determine the exponential function y=ab^x plug-in the given x an...
-
The only example of simile in "The Lottery"—and a particularly weak one at that—is when Mrs. Hutchinson taps Mrs. Delacroix on the...
-
Hello! This expression is already a sum of two numbers, sin(32) and sin(54). Probably you want or express it as a product, or as an expressi...
-
Macbeth is reflecting on the Weird Sisters' prophecy and its astonishing accuracy. The witches were totally correct in predicting that M...
-
The play Duchess of Malfi is named after the character and real life historical tragic figure of Duchess of Malfi who was the regent of the ...
No comments:
Post a Comment