Fortunato

Fortunato

"A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser."(1) In Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado", two men, whose names are Montresor and Fortunato, venture down to the depths of a wine cellar through the promise of more wine for Fortunato from Montresor's extensive collection of fine wines. Fortunato is lead to the end of the cavern of wines and chained upon a wall to which he will remain because of Montresor walling up Fortunato over an untold amount of time. Fortunato makes it clear that he is prideful, greedy, and careless.

Fortunato's pride of fine wines overtook him when he got drunk. This pride is expressed when Montresor tells the reader, "Ð'...but in the matter of old wines he was sincere." (1) This quote explains Fortunato perfectly in that he may be feared and loathed but when something he is renowned for having knowledge for comes in to check he must step and take it. Fortunato does not have the ability to think before he talks in the state he is in but his mind still functions when he is ability is questioned. Another time that Fortunato's pride is referenced quite clearly as being in question is when Montresor tells the reader, "He prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine." (1) This sentence makes it quite clear that Fortunato has a very prideful trait to himself about fine wines.

As Fortunato's pride was overtaking him the greed only quickened his demise. This trait became evident when Montresor asked Fortunato If he wanted to turn back because of his cough to which Fortunato replied, "the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough." (3) The greed expressed here represents Fortunatos lust for fine wines and to uphold his self image of a connoisseur to, at least, Montresor. Fortunato's greed will get him killed later on but before that he has to splurge some more to get his fill. This innumerous greed is once again represented when Montresor tells the reader, "I broke and reached him a flagon of De Grave. He emptied it at a breath." (4) The fact that Fortunato is finishing off glasses of wine in one breath while still pursuing a rare wine is a sign for greed and lust that, once again, cannot be quenched with just more wine.

Fortunato's carelessness is probably his most evident trait when he is in a drunken