Discussion Topic
The use of hyperbole in "The Cask of Amontillado"
Summary:
In "The Cask of Amontillado," hyperbole is used to emphasize the intensity of Montresor's feelings and actions. For instance, Montresor's vow of revenge and his description of Fortunato’s impending doom are exaggerated to heighten the story's dramatic tension and underscore the extremity of his vendetta.
Identify the hyperbole at the start of "The Cask of Amontillado".
Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement or claim that is not meant to be taken literally. One of my favorite hyperbole phrases is from the movie "The Sandlot." The character "Smalls" doesn't understand a lot of the baseball slang. His lack of knowledge is always surprising "Ham" Porter. Porter's response is always "You're killing me, Smalls!" Of course Smalls is not actually killing Porter. It's hyperbole.
In Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" the opening line is as follows:
"THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. "
Montressor is likely exaggerating the exact number of injuries done to him by Fortunato. At one injury per day, that would have taken Fortunato 2.74 years to give Montressor that many injuries. That assumes that the two men saw each other every day. If they saw each...
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once per week, that many injuries would have taken over 19 years. Montressor is using hyperbole to stress his point that Fortunato has injured him a lot.
The story begins with the sentence: "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge." It is highly unlikely that the narrator has actually been "injured" in any way by Fortunato a thousand (1000) times. He merely means by this remark that Fortunato had "injured" him--in what ways, he does not say--more times than he can count.
The use of hyperbole (an exaggerated statement meant to emphasize the importance and severity of the writer's claim, often enticing you to join his side of the argument) in this case manages to make us--his readers, his audience--accept that Fortunato has wronged him grievously and at the same time is so overstated that we are not inclined to ask for details or examples. We are given an immediate impression of a Fortunato who is not a gracious nobleman so much as a rich man who wantonly insults others and cares not for their feelings.
The effectiveness of this device makes us accomplices in the narrator's eventual crime. We learn too late that he is an unreliable narrator--although the hyperbole should have clued us in--and have accepted as gospel the words of a madman.
What phrase used by the narrator in "The Cask of Amontillado" is an example of hyperbole?
The narrator opens the short story with a hyperbole by saying,
"THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge" (Poe, 1).
Poe immediately establishes his narrator as being unreliable by having him make an outrageous claim that he has suffered a thousand injuries. The opening statement is an obvious exaggeration, which makes it a hyperbole by definition. The idea that the narrator has been carefully counting each "injury" that Fortunato has caused is absolutely ludicrous and the sheer number of injuries is purposely inflated. The number of injuries supposedly afflicted on the narrator tells the reader more about how offended Montresor feels by the wrongs than it does about the actual number of offenses committed against him by Fortunato. Montresor's tone is full of anger and his hyperbole emphasizes his profound hatred for Fortunato, which fuels his revenge. Montresor proceeds to elaborate on his plan to murder Fortunato by luring him into his catacombs, where he eventually buries him alive.
"Hyperbole" is a deliberate overstatement of a condition in order to emphasize its importance. "The Cask of Amontillado" begins with hyperbole: "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge." It is improbable that the narrator was keeping track of the "injuries" Fortunato had done him, and equally improbable that that number equaled exactly one thousand. He is using overstatement to justify his passionate need for vengeance, since Fortunato has apparently moved from mere "injury" to outright "insult," an unforgivable trespass.
While this rhetorical device is often used merely for emphasis, in this tale, it should be seen (in hindsight) as an indication of the lunacy of our narrator. He is not to be trusted, but we find that out too late.
Discuss the use of hyperbole in "The Cask of Amontillado."
Montresor actually begins the story with an example of hyperbole, a literary device that is also called overstatement. He says, "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge." It is unlikely that Fortunato has actually somehow injured Montresor some one thousand times; however, Montresor feels as wounded as though he had.
Such an exaggeration gives us some immediate insight into Montresor's character: he is on the defensive, perhaps feeling as though he needs to justify his behavior in regard to Fortunato. By stating that this man had injured him a thousand times, Montresor shares his motivation for committing the murder of Fortunato, and attempts to justify it in one fell swoop. Had Fortunato not been so offensive, so injurious, then Montresor, he implies, would never have been pushed to this point. With this hyperbole, Montresor places the blame for his victim's death squarely on his victim's shoulders by claiming that Montresor, himself, had done all he could to put up with the man.