The Cast Of Amontillado Human Nature Essay

In the story, “The Cast of Amontillado,” Edgar Allan Poe reveals the dark nature of humans. The entire story revolves around one theme --- humanity is defective. Edgar Allan Poe reaches this goal by portraying two characters, Montresor and Fortunato.

Montresor, who plans and commits the murder, illustrates several evil nature of humans. First of all, he is extremely malicious. While planning for the revenge, he addresses that he “must not only punish but punish with impunity” and “No one harms me unpunished.” This reveals that envy, jealousy, and vindictiveness exist in humanity. Montresor cannot distinguish revenge and justice. To accomplish the revenge, he does not simply let Fortunato pay for what he deserves; instead, he sends him to death. He is quite unsatisfied and greedy at this point. Moreover, he does not directly kill Fortunato; he tortures him with shame by building up a wall slowly and letting Fortunato gradually find out the truth behind this “very good joke.” He reveals the truth that the ability to rise above instinct for revenge and judge each situation objectively is extremely difficult. People act
Being cunning for protecting oneself is good. However, being cunning for unscrupulous purposes can result in unfavorable outcomes. Montresor plans everything with caution. He sends all the servants away and commits the murder secretly to ensure his success. Before the murder, Montresor utilizes Fortunato’s “weak point”, his conceit, to successfully induce Fortunato to go with him. During the murder, he is exceedingly calm and skillfully exploits Fortunato’s obsession with alcohol. He first makes Fortunato drunk by giving him glasses of wine. Then, he mentions Montresor’s illness several times to further utilize Montresor’s conceit to eliminate doubts. William Hazlitt has once said that, “cunning is the art of concealing our own defects and discovering other people’s weaknesses.” Montresor verifies and consolidates