The Cask Of Amontillado Montresor Motivation Essay

866 Words4 Pages
Many works of literature focused on exacting revenge or committing a crime exhibit clear cut motivations or at least enough clues for the reader to discover it on their own. However in Poe’s works, he makes a point to be more enigmatic about the motivations of his characters. His characters do not make it easy for readers to uncover the dark and twisted reasons behind their crimes. Yet by digging deeper, one can discover the true motivations behind a character’s actions. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado,” Poe utilizes aspects of the physical and social setting of the story in order to assist in the conveyance of Montresor’s motivations for his obscene actions. Using physical attributes to the story, such as the time period and the architectural nuances that accompany this time period, Poe is able to convey…show more content…
Based on the dressings and titles of the characters, the reader can assume that the story most likely takes place sometime during the first half of the 1700s. Fortunato addresses his wife as “the Lady Fortunato” (Poe 295) therefore alluding to a time period in which people of the nobility were referred to as lords and ladies of the court (Benton). Further proving that the murder takes place during the eighteenth century, Montresor is wearing a roquelaire when he’s down in the catacombs. Roquelaires, long fur-lined coats with brightly colored fabrics lining their insides, were fashionable during the 1700s during which European men commonly wore them (“Roquelaire”). From this, it can be confirmed that the tale takes place in England. The time period is critically important to Montresor’s motivation because during the eighteenth century, the “catacombs of Paris” were a very well-known site. Thus, it is plausible to believe that the story takes place around the “Loire river valley” where the infamous
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