FREE ESSAY ON "THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO" & "HOP FROG"

"THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO" & "HOP FROG"

Montresor effectively fulfilled the first criterion of revenge, which was to punish the
victim. Fortunato was punished for his insulting actions upon Montresor. First, Montresor
punishes Fortunato by killing him. Montresor lures Fortunato to the dungeon by making him
drunk and there he ties Fortunato to the wall and leaves the room, making Fortunato
slowly die through suffering. Montresor also punishes Fortunato by killing the friendship
between them. Fortunato felt happy at first telling Montresor, "Ha! ha! ha! - a very good
joke indeed," but then he realized that Montresor was not joking. Fortunato was hurt
because he was trapped behind a wall and he knew that Montresor could save him, but did
not. Montresor punished Fortunato by killing him and by killing the relationship between
them. Hop Frog, the main character in "Hop Frog," by Edgar Allan Poe, also successfully
met his goals of punishing the king and his ministers because the king made Hop Frog a
jester for his entertainment. Hop Frog punishes the king and his ministers by making fun
of them. Hop Frog dresses them in a ridiculous orangutan outfit, in front of the people
who attended the masquerade party. As an addition to the humiliating outfit, he covers
them with tar and flax, which is a disgrace to the king and the leaders because a citizen
should not be able to treat their rulers in a humiliating way. After humiliating the
king, he also punishes him by setting him on fire in front of the entire crowd. Hop Frog
played his last jest on the king by killing him. Hop Frog punished the king by
humiliating him and killing him.
The revenge is only considered a revenge when the second criteria is met, which was to
punish the insulter without letting the revenge overtake the punisher and getting away
with the vengeance. Montresor punished Fortunato by killing him and he did get away with
it, for no one knew what had happened to Fortunato. Fortunato was never heard of and
never seen until his skeleton was discovered over a half a century later. After killing
Fortunato, Montresor's feelings of regret did not overcome him. Montresor at first did
hesitate and tremble, but he did not let these feeling get to him. He went on placing
stone after stone, closing off Fortunato from the rest of the world. Montresor was
successful by not being caught for his murder and not allowing his feelings to overtake
him. Hop Frog, just like Montresor, was also successful in meeting the second criteria
for revenge. Hop Frog gets away with the murder of the king and the king's seven
ministers by climbing up the rope where the chandelier would have been. His plan was
devised so greatly, that he had full control over the room for everybody was trapped
inside the locked doors, which Hop Frog had the key to. With the people trapped inside
the room, he would be able to escape safely without any of them chasing him. He and his
wife "[escaped] to their own country; for neither were to bee seen again." Hop Frog also
is unaffected with the feelings of regret. He never experiences remorse toward the murder
of his king. Hop Frog said, "I am simply Hop Frog, the jester - and this is my last
jest," which would indicate that he meant to murder the king out of revenge, and he felt
no regret for it.
The third criteria of revenge was not successfully met by Montresor, which was to let the
victim know that he is being punished and let the victim know what he is being punished
for. Montresor was successful in the first part of the criteria because he did let
Fortunato know that he was being punished by saying, "for the love of God," because after
this statement, Fortunato did not reply and he had realized that he was being punished.
But Montresor was unsuccessful in letting Fortunato know what he was being punished for.
Fortunato merely said that his entrapment was "an excellent jest" and he thought the
whole thing was a joke. He never realized why Montresor murdered him. Hop Frog was also
unsuccessful in meeting the third criteria of revenge. Hop Frog did try and let the king
know that he was going to murder him. He grated his teeth and the sound was heard from
all four corners of the room, and the king did not know why Hop Frog had made the sound.
Hop Frog then laughed at this and "displayed a set of large, powerful, and very repulsive
teeth." Hop Frog was trying to tell the king, by showing his teeth, that he was being
punished. But Hop Frog was unsuccessful in letting the king know why he was being
punished. Even after the king had offered Hop Frog drinks, which he did not want, and he
pushed Trippetta from him, the king did not realize what he was being punished for. Even
after Hop Frog laughed and showed his teeth, the king did not realize what he was being
punished for and he merely laughed along with the dwarf because he thought all of Hop
Frog's actions were part of his jest.