Pride is a strong word that can cause pain if their pride is not kept in check as Fortunato’s was. He believed to be an impeccable connoisseur of incredible wine and goes as far as to insult others by saying phrases similar to how “Luchesi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry” (237), which is another way of explaining just how poor of a taster Luchesi is in Fortunato’s eyes. Analyzing the numerous instances of symbolism with the use of Fortunato, Montresor, and a Motto in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado” to portray pride and pain.

Fortunato is a man full of pride all the way to the brim, but because of that he ends up falling into a trap set to cause him pain, even though he is of royal status and his name means blessed, happy, or …show more content…
Family can motivate people to do strange things, which may be to enact vengeance on another or to even fill a position that may be related to a bloodline. This can lead to the pride that one feels when completing the revenge or when successfully filling in a role of great power. Montresor’s pride festered by his family motto, which he believed needed to be avenged after an unforgettable insult was made towards him. What even gave him great pleasure is how he was able to keep Fortunato alive as he enacted the revenge for his pride and rubbed it in the wound he had created from tricking Fortunato. Most of all though, is the pain that can follow one’s own family motto. Just being apart of a family could mean everything in what could be accomplished or obtained in that lifetime to wealth, fame, and more things of that sort, which held great value. The depiction of a “foot crushing a serpent” (238) could be a symbol for how his pride was completely crushed by another even if he did nothing wrong to deserve such pain. Correlating with the subject, a coat of arms is the embodiment of a whole family under a single motto and are expected to uphold all of it. Great pride, which may not be felt as strongly in anything else was taken because if a family of the time had one and even though today most do not have one it is still a sign of great power. The “foot crushing a serpent” (238) is the only one that was introduced in and when he said the phrase “nemo me impune lacessit” (238), which is the actual motto that goes with the coat of arms. While great pride was taken it also was a gateway to cause greater suffering or pain if one was unable to exceed expectations and showed off just how proud they were. Pride can be destroyed just as fast as it was