The Count of Monte Cristo Vs The Cask of Amontillado: A Cultural Analysis

The Count of Monte Cristo is a story of man with many faces and a heart of vengeance and revenge. The protagonist is Edmond Dantes, also known as Monte Cristo. Before blackmailed and imprisoned by his previously thought friends, he was a kind and honest man. He appears to be very smart, though not a person with unpopular opinions, he follows societal and ethical codes where he honors and respects his elders, cherishes his father whom is dying, and treats everyone with kindness and respect. He is blessed in life, finding himself a captain of a ship. Before that occurs he admires his boss, is in love with his fiancé, and even responds to those who clearly dislike him with kindness and respect as well.

It is when he reaches prison that his life truly changes. He meets a wise and new friend Abbe Faria who teaches him much about life, philosophy, history, and educates him. Dantes, already an intelligent man, gains plenty from this process of enlightenment. At this point you may suspect a change in his character, maybe an opening of the mind, but when his dear friend passes away, he loses the last human connection he has while in prison and somewhat, in his entire life until the very end when he falls in love. He soon grows a deep hatred for those who put him in this situation. He grows revengeful against those who had wronged him, while being such a kind and innocent man. Though he feels a sense of hate that consumes him in a sense, he also feels a huge capacity of love towards those who have carried him through his hardships or attempted to. These feelings are strengthened when his late friend Abbe Faria supplies him with the location of great fortune. When he escapes prison, he becomes a wealthy nobleman and holds the needed wealth to carry out a plan to punish those whom hurt him several years before. Instead of understanding this wealth as a act of pure kindness from one friend to another, he accepts his newly found fortune as an act from God which he then believes what given to him specifically to punish those who wronged him and reward those who had be kind to him. He spends the remainder of his life carrying out evil plans to punish those who have hurt him and greatly rewarding those who have attempted to help. Dante eventually finds happiness in the end when he fall in love with Haydee.

The Cask of Amontillado is another story of great revenge, though having some distinct differences. In the Cask of Amontillado, Montresor, the protagonist of this story feels he has been insulted too harshly to be forgiven by his friend Fortunato, and because of this, he seeks revenge in the form of death. This insult is never known to the reader, or the level of prosecution. Montresor uses Fortunatos love for wine as a ploy to get him to follow him into an underground catacomb. The story takes place in their journey through these catacombs surrounded by dead bodies where Montresor also gets Fortunato drunk. Fortunato blindly follows while having odd conversations and debates about whether or not Montresor is a true Mason. Along the way, Fortunato becomes heavily intoxicated and stumbles around. Montresor claims that Amontillado (the wine) is being stored in a small inclosure within the wall.

At the end of the story Montresor chains Fortunato to a stone. He then tricks him to an exit which leaves him trapped inside a crypt. Fortunate cries out in confusion while Montresor begins to build a wall to enclose him within this crypt. As Fortunato begins to sober up, he is silent and scared. He begins to laugh frighteningly pleading for his life and asking Montresor to stop playing jokes on him but Montresor does not answer to his pleas. In the last few moments, Montresor calls out for Fortunato, but he does not respond. At this point he claims his heart feels sick from the dampness around him. Even though a swift sense of regret comes upon him, he does nothing but plaster the wall closed with Fortunato inside.

Though both stories revolve around the sense of revenge, they are very different in a sense that in The Count of Monte Cristo, Dauntes does not wish to kill anyone, though his enemy clearly attempts to ruin his entire life but sentencing him to life in prison. He punishes them by giving carrying out plans in which leave them in a life of misery. On the other hand, in The Cask of Amontillado Montresor murders Fortunato with no clear insight as to how he was insulted and no proof that it even occurred. Both stories do not consider seeking revenge through the law. Both protagonists take the law into their own hands which gives us an idea of what social and political time this occurs in- when rewarding and punishing others is taken in your own hands and no higher being or superior is considered in making those decisions.

In addition, there is some symbolism in The Cask of Amontillado when all of this takes place during carnival season, when social order is abandoned, similar to Halloween. Also, there are some interesting dynamics within the relationship between Montresor and Fortunato. In a sense, even though Monstresor commits murder, he does not win. He shows great weakness at the end of the story when screaming Fortunato's name and receiving no response. It is intriguing and quite a mystery to think as to why Fortunato chose not to speak.

Moreover, in The Count of Monte Cristo there is a sense of struggle with justice that becomes clear. Dantes does not trust the political and social system, as well as the justice system of his time to bring his enemies crimes to justice. Because the system has failed him, he no longer believes the system to be competent.

In conclusion, both stories truly signify human justice and human vengeance. We learn from both of these stories how the need to seek out revenge can cloud the mind and in turn make us do irrational things under such emotions. Though both stories share completely different qualities in characters and plot, they're both still troublesome none the less.

Works Cited

"The Cask of Amontillado (Full Version)." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Oct. 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiynDpoBR30.

"The Count of Monte Cristo 2002 - HD 1080p - English Full Movie." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Mar. 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QErysVL-rQE.