How did Fortunato insult Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado"?
Fortunato did not do anything to insult Montresor.
There is no specific insult to Montresor mentioned, but the way that Montresor describes Fortunato’s insult makes it seem like it was either very slight or nonexistent.
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged …
Fortunato clearly has no idea what he is doing to annoy Montresor. Montresor is convinced that Fortunato has done him horrible wrongs, but these are all in his head. Montresor is not in his right mind, and so he has imagined that Fortunato has insulted him.
You can tell that Fortunato isn’t aware that Montresor considers him an enemy by the way he greets him.
It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much. … I was so pleased to see him that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand.
Yes, Fortunato has been drinking and so his judgement might be impaired, but why would he be so happy to see Montresor if he spent so much time insulting him? Why would Montresor be happy to see him? Actually, Montresor is happy to see him because he has been planning his murder. It makes no sense though, that if Fortunato was really an enemy and had really done all of these horrible wrongs to Montresor that he would so willingly go with him.
The insults, or the thousand injuries, are all in Montresor's head. They are the product of a delusional mind. Montresor is a madman, and while madmen might make entertaining narrators, they do not make reliable ones. They do, however, make excellent murderers. Montresor carefully plots Fortunato's murder because he is convinced he has done him some horrible wrong.
How did Fortunato insult Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado"?
The insult is never named, or rather the "thousand injuries" were never named by Fortunato. We know that Montresor is an unreliable narrator because he never names the insults and his account of the entire story is so one-sided he cannot be entirely believed. Montresor tells the reader that he's tried to hide his true feelings of animosity from Fortunato when he says, "neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued . . . to smile in his face and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation."
We do know, however, that Fortunato thinks of Montresor as a friend and has no idea the way that Montresor feels about him. We know this because Fortunato goes freely with Montresor to the catacombs beneath Montresor's estate to taste the rare amontillado. If Fortunato thought them enemies he would never have gone with him in the first place.
There was a movie made based on the Poe story in 1972 which is narrated by Vincent Price and in that version of the story the "thousand injuries" amounted to Fortunato having an affair with Montresor's beautiful wife. Ultimately the purpose of the story has little to do with the injuries and more to do with the suspense, the horror of burying a man alive behind a brick wall, the "perfect" murder.
How did Fortunato insult Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado"?
The insult most likely has to do with something about Montresor's family. When Montresor is in the catacombs with Fortuanto, Fortunato takes several unconscious digs at Montresor's family. At one point he says, "Oh, I forgot, the Montresors were once a great and noble family." In other words, Montresor's family is not as noble as it once was. Then, Fortunato makes the sign of the masons, an exclusive club of prominent men of the time. Then he says, "Oh, you are not of the masons?"---an obvious dig a Montresor's prestige. Montresor quickly pulls out a trowel, a tool of the common mason, or bricklayer, and says, sarcastically, "Yes. Yes, I am a mason." Of course, this is a reference to Montresor's plan to bury Fortunato alive. Poor Fortunato is totally obvious to this plan because he is so proud and also drunk.
What are the "thousand injuries" Fortunato inflicted in "The Cask of Amontillado"?
This is such an interesting question because in the very first sentence, the narrator tells us, "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge."
The narrator is trying to convince us from the very beginning that Fortunato has wronged him so unjustly that Fortunato deserves death. That is a pretty strong position to take, so where is the support for these "thousand injuries"?
Interestingly, the narrator doesn't really develop those details. And that is part of the problem, because this narrator has many qualities that lead us to believe he is unreliable and that maybe the details he is providing aren't exactly factual. (Poe presents similar narrators in "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Tell-Tale Heart.")
In the second paragraph, the narrator tells us that "it must be understood that neither by word or deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will." In effect, the narrator is therefore bragging about how well he was able to deceive Fortunato into trusting him on the walk that led to Fortunato's death. If he so effectively deceived his victim, is he equally talented at deceiving the reader?
And it is also important that in the final lines, the narrator lets us know that it has been "half a century" since this murder took place. So how clear are his memories of these "thousand injuries," anyway?
It is possible that Fortunato inflicted no injuries on our unreliable narrator at all. Surely those would have been worth recounting as justification for the murder that transpired, so the absence of these key details really builds a case that Fortunato may not have been to blame for his untimely end.
What are the "thousand injuries" Fortunato inflicted in "The Cask of Amontillado"?
Many readers have complained about the fact that Montresor never offers any examples of the thousand injuries he claims to have suffered. Some readers think Montresor must be insane and only imagining the injuries. The story was originally published in 1846, and to this day the thousand injuries have remained a puzzle. It almost seems as if Edgar Allan Poe was playing a joke on his readers, leaving them to wonder what those injuries could have been or whether there were any injuries at all. But Montresor is not addressing us readers; he is addressing a confidential confession to someone he calls "You, who so well know the nature of my soul." That person must have known about some of Montresor's grievances, but he or she is dead now, and nobody else will ever know what any of those grievances were. They must be kept secret, just as Fortunato's body must be kept hidden from the world. If anybody knew that Fortunato had injured Montresor a thousand times, then Montresor would be a prime suspect. And if he were a prime suspect, a careful search of his premises would lead to the discovery of Fortunato's body. That is why the reader comes up against a stone wall. Poe intended it that way. He wanted his readers to wonder. It was sufficient that the injuries were known to "You, who so well know the nature of my soul." The story is not addressed to you or me, but to this man or woman who is the only person in the world that Montresor trusts. We can only guess at the nature of those injuries—if we think it is important. They have to be injuries that nobody else knew about. Montresor pretends to be oblivious of any injuries. He deliberately refers to Fortunato as his friend and his good friend on every possible occasion. He constantly addresses Fortunato himself as "my friend" and has even conditioned himself to think of him as such, even when he is plotting to kill him and is leading him to his death. Fortunato must have gotten the idea that this Montresor is a fool and a toady who will put up with anything. Montresor is acting the part of a toady throughout the tale. He keeps addressing Fortunato as "My friend" and treats him with great courtesy. It is noteworthy that he is even obsequious when he is preparing to wall his good friend up inside the little niche.
“Pass your hand,” I said, “over the wall; you cannot help feeling the nitre. Indeed, it is very damp. Once more let me implore you to return. No? Then I must positively leave you. But I must first render you all the little attentions in my power.”
In "The Cask of Amontillado," what did Fortunato say or do to insult Montresor so badly?
Poe does not explicitly tell the reader what exactly Fortunato said or did to motivate Montresor to plot and execute the perfect revenge. At the beginning of the short story, Montresor says that he had endured a "thousand injuries" from Fortunato, but when Fortunato "ventured upon insult," he vowed revenge. While the "thousand injuries" is quite vague, one can surmise from Fortunato's character and Montresor's family pride that Fortunato more than likely verbally insulted Montresor or his family's name. When Montresor initially meets Fortunato, Fortunato is depicted as a confident man, as he insults Luchresi when Montresor suggests that he consult Luchresi regarding the Amontillado. As the two men enter Montresor's vaults, Montresor reveals his family pride by referring to his ancestors as "great" and "numerous." Montresor also explains to Fortunato his family's coat of arms as they travel down further and further into the catacombs. While Poe does not explicitly state what Fortunato did that made Montresor so upset, one can surmise that Fortunato probably verbally insulted Montresor or his family's name.
In "The Cask of Amontillado," what did Fortunato say or do to insult Montresor so badly?
Poe never states the reason for the revenge. He takes it outside the realm of justifiability. the focuse is not on whether the act deserved death, but on the act of revenge itself. He makes Montresor the "bad guy," rather than Fortunato.
However, given Montresor's character, it's difficult not to assume that it was something minor. Montresor seems pretty unbalanced, don't you think? In fact, Fortunato doesn't even seem to be aware that he has insulted Montresor at all. And therein lies the horror--we never know when we've ticked off a madman.....
Does "The Cask of Amontillado" hint at Montresor's thousand injuries?
Many people have questioned Montresor’s assertion that he had received a thousand injuries at the hands of Fortunato and base their doubts on the fact that he apparently fails to describe even one injury. But it seems impossible to believe that a literary genius and perfectionist like Poe would ignore such an important matter and thereby create confusion about the honesty or sanity of his narrator Montresor. I believe that an explanation of the “thousand injuries” is to be understood by a close reading, with particular attention to the third paragraph.
He had a weak point -- this Fortunato -- although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared. He prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine. Few Italians have the true virtuoso spirit. For the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to suit the time and opportunity to practise imposture upon the British and Austrian MILLIONAIRES. In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack, but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this respect I did not differ from him materially; I was skilful in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could.
This paragraph does many things. It distances Montresor from Italians and helps to identify him as an outsider. It strongly suggests that both he and Fortunato deal in expensive merchandise such as painting and gemmary (jewelry) and “old wines.” Both are aristocrats, but they have to earn money in the decaying city of Venice where many formerly wealthy families are selling off their possessions in order to stay alive. Montresor and Fortunato are gentlemen “dealers” or “brokers” but not merchants.
Fortunato is rich, but Montresor is poor. If he has been insulted by Fortunato a thousand times, why does he continue to associate with him. No doubt he is dependent on Fortunato in business transactions. He might borrow money at interest to purchase an oil painting for resale, or he might have to take Fortunato into a temporary partnership on a transaction because he could not afford to handle it with his own limited resources. Montresor in some cases might only receive a finder’s fee on a lucrative deal he originated himself. Fortunato would have ample opportunities to take advantage of him. For instance, if Montresor proposed a fifty-fifty split of the profits on a sale of a statue or oil painting, Fortunato might hold out for sixty or seventy percent, and Montresor would have no choice but to agree. These are the types of injuries Fortunato has suffered, and this is the explanation of why he continues to associate with the man and to call him his “good friend.”
Monresor knows his man. He knows that Fortunato is not anxious to taste his nonexistent Amontillado out of friendship or to show off his connoisseurship. Nor is he strongly tempted to sip a glass of wine in the dank, dark underground vault full of human bones. He is planning to taste the wine, shake his head and judge it to be inferior sherry--then rush off to find the newly arrived Spanish ship and buy up the entire cargo at a bargain price before Luchesi ever hears about it. Montresor undoubtedly would have purchased more than one cask if he had been sure it was genuine, but he would find it has been all sold off. And his good friend will call his dirty trick "an excellent jest." Montresor is only double-crossing the double-crosser.
Does "The Cask of Amontillado" hint at Montresor's thousand injuries?
In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," Montressor is using extreme exaggeration (hyperbole, verbal irony) when he says:
THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could ; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.
Montressor provides neither the injuries nor the insult in the story, which makes us believe that it is the other way around (Montressor is delivering all injuries and insults). Indeed, Montressor is more than a bit paranoid--to the point of mania. His overdeveloped sensitivities (regarding his family code of revenge: "I must not only punish, but punish with impunity") have lead him to imagine these violations, and his elaborate plan of revenge reveals signs of his own mental illness. It seems that family reputation (which prides in revenge) has driven him to look for signs of insult that--to an average person--are unintended or non-existent.
At worst, Fortunato is guilty of drunkenness, which is a self-induced injury that should not offend Montressor. In fact, Fortunato's drunkenness plays into Montressor's plan of revenge. Perhaps Fortunato is materialistic in his connoisseurship of wine: he must have it at all costs. This too plays into the plan, but it is not an overt threat.
Nothing from Fortunato's statements in the story lead us to believe even a hint of malice by him toward the narrator. Sure, he forgets Montressor's coat of arms and family motto. Big deal. Sure, he insults Lechesi, calling him an "ignoramus," but this should not offend our narrator. In the end, Fortunato remains completely oblivious of Montressor's intentions and his fate.
No, the thousand injuries and insults are indeed delivered by Montressor, not Fortunato, which makes this story a classic tale of motiveless revenge and extreme paranoia.
What are the "injuries" in "The Cask of Amontillado"?
Poe was a perfectionist. It is hard to believe that he would provide Montresor with such a strong motivation for refenge without giving some clue to the "thousand injuries" he had suffered. Poe did not need to describe any of these injuries in the opening of his story, which would have involved more exposition. He knew he could demonstrate Fortunato's faults anywhere in the story. In fact, the injurious behavior is so blatant that it can easily be overlooked by the reader.
Fortunato is rich. Montresor is poor. Both men apparently deal in luxury goods with millionaires. Here are a couple of significant sentences in the third paragraph of the story:
Few Italians have the true virtuoso spirit. For the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to suit the time and opportunity to practise imposture upon the British and Austrian millionaires.
In that same paragraph Montresor says:
I was skilfull in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could.
This does not mean that he bought largely whenever he could find good wines for sale but that he bought largely whenever he could afford to. Both men bought art works, jewels, antiques, and other luxury goods including fine wines to sell at a profit to rich foreigners. Fortunato was rich and could afford to outbid Montresor continually. It was in business deals that Montresor suffered most of his injuries.
Note that Montresor does not consider himself an Italian although he lives in Italy. He has a French name. He is not taking part in the Italian carnival. He is wearing a French style cloak. He gives his victim French wine twice when they are underground. His family may have lived in Italy for some time, but he could still be considered an outsider by the aristocracy, and Fortunato might have taken cruel pleasure in reminding him of his outsider status. There are a great many human bones in the catacombs. This could be taken to show that the Montresors have lived there for many centuries--but it is never stated that the bones belong to Montresor's ancestors.
Fortunato is not interested in the Amontillado because he wants to drink some of it or to show off his connoisseurship. He senses that he might make a big profit. Montresor only bought one cask (a "pipe" containing 126 gallons), but Fortunato could afford to buy a whole shipload. First he must establish that it is the true Amontillado. He doesn't want Montresor to go to Luchesi because Luchesi is a competitor. For that matter, Montresor himself might become a competitor. He twice tells Fortunato that he has his doubts about the authenticity of the Amontillado. If Fortunato verifies that it is genuine, then Montresor might go back to his source and buy some more. The suggestion in his saying, "I have my doubts" is that he only bought one cask because he wasn't sure it was the real Amontillado. And Montresor is well aware that Fortunato is thinking of beating him out of a good deal once again if the wine is authentic. Montresor understands Fortunato's ruthless character and hates him for it while using it against him.
What are the "injuries" in "The Cask of Amontillado"?
This is one of the aspects that Edgar Allan Poe never reveals in his classic gothic short story, "The Cask of Amontillado." We know that the narrator, Montresor, has been slighted in some manner by his nemesis, Fortunato, but Montresor never specifically reveals what the "thousand injuries" are. Additionally, we also know that Fortunato has added insult ("he ventured upon insult") to injury, thus causing Montresor to plot his special type of revenge. There is absolutely no other hint concerning Fortunato's sins against Montresor, but we can assume that the narrator is exaggerating with the number of injuries in question.
What injuries did Fortunato inflict on Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado"?
In the opening sentence of Poe's classic short story "The Cask of Amontillado," Montresor claims that Fortunato had caused him a "thousand injuries" but does not go into specific detail regarding Fortunato's transgressions. Montresor's accusation seems exaggerated, and the nature of Fortunato's offenses remains ambiguous.
As the story progresses, it is revealed that Montresor is an unreliable narrator, and the audience begins to question the validity of his accusation. By portraying Montresor as an unreliable narrator, Poe raises questions regarding whether or not Fortunato's punishment is justified.
Once Montresor meets Fortunato during the carnival, he proceeds to manipulate his enemy by mentioning that he recently purchased a pipe of extremely rare Amontillado and planned on consulting Luchesi to authenticate the expensive wine. Fortunato responds by insisting that he try the wine, criticizing Luchesi's apparent expertise, and agreeing to follow Montresor into his catacombs.
It is significant that Montresor purchased a pipe because it is a large quantity, which suggests that he planned on selling a portion of it to make a profit. Fortunato is a wealthy man, and it is implied that he is interested in authenticating the wine so that he could also purchase a large quantity and turn a profit. Fortunato's motivation for purchasing a large quantity suggests that he is willing to undercut Montresor's business plan, which suggests that the "thousand injuries" were in some way related to Fortunato undermining Montresor's business deals.
Fortunato's criticism of Luchesi also suggests that he may have offended Montresor at some point in the past by publicly ridiculing him. There is also a possibility that Fortunato did nothing to harm Montresor and that Montresor is mentally unstable and acting upon his delusional thoughts.
Given the brief information in the story, one cannot draw specific conclusions regarding the exact nature of Fortunato's offenses and must take the narrator's accusations with a grain of salt.
In "The Cask of Amontillado," is Fortunato portrayed as an insulting person?
Fortunato does not seem like an insulting person, but the narrator only specifies one insult while he accuses him of a "thousand injuries." The "insult" might have been unintentional or even imaginary, but the thousand injuries need to be considered. Does Fortunato seem like a person who could commit that many injuries? If so, why would Montresor put up with their relationship long enough to allow him to do so? It would take years to commit that many injuries.
The third paragraph of Poe's story strongly suggests that Montresor and Fortunato, though aristocrats, are making money by dealing in such expensive merchandise as art works, antiques, jewelry--and presumably gourmet wines. They have their palazzi in a port city which has to be Venice. Fortunato is rich and well connected. Montresor is poor and just getting by. He may have to depend on Fortunato for loans and cooperative ventures. Fortunato could have "injured" Montresor by outbidding him and in similar ways--in fact, Fortunato is planning to buy up the whole cargo of Amontillado if he tastes it and verifies that it is the authentic Amontillado. And furthermore, Montresor knows that Fortunato is planning to do so. This would be perhaps his thousand-and-first injury, because Montresor would have bought more if he had been sure it was the right stuff. His only reason for asking Fortunato to judge it is so that he will know whether it is safe to buy more for future resale, and Fortunato's only reason for being in such great haste to sample it is that he wants to buy as much as he can for himself. He is capable of tasting the wine, shaking his head, and saying it is only ordinary sherry--then rushing off to buy the whole cargo!
The Amontillado, of course, doesn't even exist, as Fortunato will shortly discover. The trickster will have been outtricked.
In "The Cask of Amontillado," is Fortunato portrayed as an insulting person?
Because Enotes only allows one question at a time, your questions have been edited to one. If you will type the others into the search box for this story, there are answers already posted which have relevance to your question and should assist you.
In reference to the question regarding Fortunato's actually being an insulting person, Poe's use of the unreliable narrator provides no certain answer since the reader only knows what Montesor relates, and he does not seem to be entirely stable. However, there are indications that Fortunato's ego is large and he prides himself on being a connossieur of wines. Because of his pride, it seems plausible that he would deprecate others; in fact, he does dismiss Luchesi as an inferior,
"....And as for Luchesi, he cannot distinguish sherry from Amontillado."
When Montresor finally leads Fortunato to the wine in the depths of the catacombs, he tells his victim, "...herein is the Amontillado. As for Luchesi--" and the proud Fortunato angrily interrupts, "He is an ignoramus." So, he does insult Luchesi, whom he considers an inferior opponent of his. Never does Fortunato insult Montresor, however, as there must be no jealousy or grudges towards the narrator. That Fortunato does not entertain any suspicions of Montresor seems to indicate that he has no antagonism toward his torturer, only towards Luchesi.
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