In The Cask of Amontillado , Montresor is seen as a quiet, secretive man. He carefully calculates each step he takes, and of course, keeps it a secret. As seen from before, he had been hurt countless times Fortunato but had kept his feelings to himself. To add insult to injury, Fortunato goes ahead and mocks his name, a name that Montresor deemed honorable as it came from an old and honorable family. For this reason, he assesses the situation and hatches a plan. In as much as he yearns for revenge, he does so with great care, hoping he will not be caught. However, his murder lands him in court, where the prosecution heaps hard evidence upon him. As the prosecution says, Montresor is a cold, heartless, but calculated man. The prosecution then goes ahead and tables the evidence of the events that transpired during Fortunato's murder. As the leading prosecutor explains, Montresor knew and planned exactly how the night was going to turn out. For instance, he began by ensuring that his home would be devoid of any inhabitants, thus eliminating potential witnesses. Montresor knew there were carnival festivities taking place, which is why he gave all his home members permission to enjoy themselves as he sneaked out in the night. Once that plan succeeded, he went ahead with the next phase of inviting Fortunato for Amontillado. Montresor had prior knowledge about Fortunato's love for wine. As the prosecuting attorney explained, the wine was his weakness. Montresor inviting Fortunato, therefore, was a carefully calculated plan. He knew he would not be able to turn down the invitation. Montresor was cunning enough to make it look like he was uninterested in sharing the pipe of Amontillado with him. Convincingly, he told Fortunato that he would not mind sharing the bottle Luchresi as he did not want to get in the way of him going to the carnival. Once the bird was in the nest, Montresor took him to the family crypt, where he claimed the wine was. Nevertheless, he was sure to give Fortunato alcohol on the way as it would ease his work of killing him.
As soon as they reached the crypt, Montresor took a chain, iron staples, and a padlock and fettered Fortunato to the crypt's granite. Since the alcohol already intoxicated Fortunato, the swift move took him by surprise. Before he could register what was happening, Montresor took a trowel, exposed some bricks and entrapped him to a wall, and left him to die there. The prosecuting attorney thus concluded by saying that all actions proved beyond a reasonable doubt that premeditated Fortunato's murder. For this reason, the prosecution pleaded with the jury to find him guilty as charged. The defense attorney, on the other hand, tried to prove Montresor's innocence. For instance, they insisted that he was a good man and could not be held responsible for his attendant's disobedience of his stay at home order. The defense also pointed out that Montresor's initial plan was to share a pipe with Luchresi and that Fortunato insisted on accompanying him. In addition to that, the defense claimed that both Montresor and Fortunato drank alcohol and not Fortunato alone, as the prosecution had said. The defense attorney's closing remarks were that Mr. Montresor was a sick man, a condition initiated by Fortunato. The height of his sickness was at the crypt, where he snapped, and that temporary insanity contributed to his actions. Therefore, the defense asked the jury to consider Montresor as a sick man and give the verdict of not guilty to substantiate the condition of his insanity. Nonetheless, the jury found Montresor guilty of premeditated first-degree murder.
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