Thursday, January 1, 2015

Briefly describe the interactions of the narrator and Fortunato in "The Cask of Amontillado".

Fortunado had somehow gone too far with his insults towards Montressor, and it finally drove Montressor over the edge.  In the beginning paragraph Montressor says that he would get his revenge.  "At length, I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled."

The reader must take the word of Montressor because we never read anything that Fortunado specifically says or does that would constitute "injury" or "insult."  The interaction they have begins on the streets during a carnival.  Montressor finds Fortunado completely drunk and lures him into his family's catacombs.  Previously, Montressor gets rid of his servants for the night, knowing his plan would require him to be alone in the house.  Fortunado is very willing to go check out Montressor's cask of Amontillado.  Montressor even uses reverse psychology to get him to commit and go with him.

"My friend, no; I will not impose upon your good nature. I perceive you have an engagement--Luchesi...My friend, no. It is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted . The vaults are insufferably damp. They are encrusted with nitre."

The rest of the interaction between the two occurs on their journey deeper into the catacombs where he buries him alive. Most of that interaction involves his use of verbal irony.

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