Fortunato Archetype

In literature, every genre has its own specific and unique characteristics. In “The Cask of the Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, the protagonist Montresor and antagonist Fortunato both fit into the gothic archetype and fulfill the role of a gothic character. Often, a gothic character commits one or more of the deadly sins, which are, lust, greed, envy, wrath, pride, gluttony, and sloth. The punishment Montresor suffers for committing these sins is living with the guilt of knowing he killed someone. Fortunato has a lot of pride in himself and commits gluttony because he gets drunk. Fortunato’s punishment for his sins is being killed by Montresor. Montresor and Fortunato satisfy the gothic archetype in a myriad of ways. Gothic literature focuses on the worst traits of mankind. In gothic literature, the character possess evil traits and fit …show more content…
Fortunato has great pride in himself. In the story it states, “He prided himself in his connoisseurship in wine.” Fortunato is a wine taster and he thought he was better than any other wine taster. Fortunato praises himself over everybody else and is super conceded. Fortunato didn’t want anyone else to taste the Amontillado besides himself because he thought no one could tell the difference between wines as well as he could. Also, Fortunato fits into the gothic archetype because he commits the sin of gluttony. The author states, “He turned toward me, and looked into my eyes with two filmy oprs that distilled the rheum of intoxication.” Fortunato gets drunk and as Montresor gives Fortunato more wine to drink, Montresor sees that Fortunato isn’t sober by the way his eyes look. Moreover, further into the story, Fortunato starts to lean on Montresor even more than he originally was because he was so intoxicated that he couldn’t hold himself up as much. The punishment followed by these sins is Fortunato gets killed by

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Archetype In The Cask Of The Amontillado