The unreliability of a person can be caused by many different factors, one of them being their insanity. In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator, Montresor, is clearly insane. But is his insanity the reason for his unreliability or is his unreliability the cause of his insanity? Nevertheless, it is obvious Montresor is unreliable due to the way he openly discusses, without dissimulation, how he swore to get revenge on Fortunato, in addition to the way he acts and pretends to care about him. In Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," the narrator Montresor communicates to the reader that he is insane right off the bat, he does not attempt to hide it from anybody except for Fortunato, he clearly uses irony as a means to conceal …show more content…
He took his time getting his revenge, he studied Fortunato, he thought everything out perfectly, he planned everything out, and then sought out to get his revenge. He knew how he could attract Fortunato, Fortunato loved wine. They went back to Montresor’s house, to taste some wine, but beforehand Montresor has made sure there “were no attendants at home… I had told them that I should not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned” (Poe 63). It is absolutely astonishing how intelligent and thought-out Montresor’s revenge was. He knew that by giving his maids orders to stay watching over his house while he was out, they would immediately leave as soon as he did. Not only that but also he knew that Fortunato could not resist wine tasting, which is why he used it as bait. Not everyone will take the time to think every step through and be intelligent about every move they make, but Montresor did, which comes to show how serious he is about his revenge, how intelligent yet insane he is, and headstrong he is about not wanting to forgive …show more content…
There are many examples of irony in the story, each one sufficiently proving that the narrator is completely unreliable. Yet this example, stuck out more than the rest because it goes above and beyond to prove his unreliability. While walking in the catacombs, Fortunato gets a cough, and Montresor pretends to be very worried about it. Being the great friend that he is, Montresor thought he “should use all proper caution. A draft of this Médoc will defend us from the damps” (Poe 64). Taking advantage of Fortunato’s cough, he gives him more and more wine as a “remedy” for his cough, which in reality did nothing except get Fortunato more drunk, which made it easier to get his revenge. Montresor says one thing, and has the complete opposite intentions, which again is an example of irony. Montresor uses irony as a way to camouflage what everyone knows is there, except
Edgar Allan Poe published in The Cask of Amontillado in 1846. He is known for his gothic and dark writing style. In The Cask of Amontillado, the main character Montresor seeks revenge on Fortunato. The story follows Montresor’s plan for revenge and ends with the murder of Fortunato. Montresor’s actions are bizarre and uncalled for, especially after he never explains the motive for the murder. After analyzing Montresor’s actions and examining his mental state, and the crime he committed, I have concluded that he suffered from Antisocial Personality Disorder. “A personality disorder that is characterized by antisocial behavior exhibiting pervasive disregard for and violation of the rights, feelings, and safety of others starting in childhood
Poe uses irony in his story to engage the reader throughout his text, build suspense and create tension. Poe’s story uses information that readers already know and consequently uses irony in order to sustain the readers interest. He uses dramatic irony, since Fortunato is unaware that Montresor attempts to kill him, but the readers know that he will. Montresor reveals early that he is seeking revenge on Fortunato, therefore, when Montresor expresses concern about Fortunato’s health in line 36, "Come," I said, with decision, "we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible. (36), the reader already knows his plan. He is just trying to trick him into believing him that he cares about him to gain his trust. He also uses verbal irony, "Enough," he said; "the cough's a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.” (Poe37), but Fortunato already knows how he will die later on. This example illustrates how vague Fortunato is and has no clue of Montresor’s evil intentions. The situational irony Poe uses in the story is when Montresor kills Fortunato and walks out of the catacombs. Montresor says, “my heart grew sick; it was the
“The Cask of Amontillado” starts out with the narrator, later discovered to be Montresor, positioning himself as a victim of Fortunato. In the opening line, he states, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could” (714). Instantaneously one feels sympathetic towards a person that has withstood a thousand inflictions. Montresor goes on to tell a parable of sorts about vengeance, and “when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong” (715) he has lost. In this instance Poe has set Montresor apart from being at the least an unsuspecting
In this chapter, Foster discusses irony. When Montresor is attempting to bring Fortunato into his catacombs, he makes several ironic statements. For example, he says that Fortunato’s “health is precious” (Poe 868). As well as this, Fortunato himself states that he “shall not die of a cough” (Poe 868). These two statements are ironic because Montresor is pretending to care about Fortunato’s health and life, when in reality, he is about to kill him. To add to this, Fortunato admits that he won’t die from a cough, unbeknown to the fact that he will instead die from his friend. Also, another ironic part of the story is the fact that Fortunato came to the catacombs for wine, but his own intoxication led to how easily he was killed. If it hadn’t been Carnival, and if he hadn’t been so heavily drunk, he might have been able to at least attempt to escape his inevitable death. Also, if he had been sober, he may have realized how foolish it was to follow Montresor to the catacombs when his story wasn’t exactly adding up. These are a few examples of irony in “The Cask of Amontillado.”
1. What can the reader infer about Montresor’s social position and character from hints in the text? What evidence does the text provide that Montresor is an unreliable narrator? We learned from paragraph 23 to 24 that Montresor owns a Palazzo and also has lot of retainers based on that evidence, the reader can infer that Montresor is a very wealthy and successful man. About his character, the reader can imply that Montresor is a heartless, cold blooded, sneaky, manipulative, and untrustworthy man, as well as a man who hold on to grudges. Moreover, Montresor is an unreliable narrator, because he reveals in the first paragraph that he intends to have a revenge on Fortunato, but he did not indicate or clearly prove to the readers how Fortunato
Montresor is portrayed as a man that turns on his former friend, leaving him to die showing little to no remorse for his deed. The reader can use these clues to believe he is insane, or possibly just a heartless person. The reader knows that the two characters had a previous dispute that created tension between the two. Fortunato seems to not be bothered by this previous argument, but Montresor appears to be a holding a grudge to no end. After he had almost sealed Fortunato’s death, he says “My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so.” (169-170) That statement shows the reader that it is not the man he just killed that is making his heart sick, but it is the atmosphere he was standing in. Any man in his right mind, would feel guilty for these actions, but Poe showed through Fortunato, that no guilt was shown whatsoever. The reader does not know if she can trust the narrator because he is obviously a little
Montresor seeks revenge, and is rather demented and berserk. He obtrudes Fortunato’s evening by taking him to test wine and along the way he lashes out at Fortunato a few times in the story which is rather scary. He says at the very beginning, “the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (p. 372). No matter what happened Montresor vowed that he would get revenge on Fortunato no matter how and when he got his revenge. Montresor had a long time to develop a strong plan that wouldn’t get him in trouble or caught because he didn’t want to go to jail for committing a murder. Both of these characters are different, and have strange reasons for their
Fortunato had in some way insulted Montresor in the past. He never thought about what might be coming for him. Fortunato is the type of man to put people down and not think much of it. "So he knew a lot about fine wines, and proudly beloved that he was a trained judge of them". (Poe) This shows that Fortunato comes off as arrogant. Because Montresor had not reacted to being insulted in the past, Fortunato
The first irony is verbal irony. Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant. There are many examples of this kind of irony through this story. The first irony is the name “Fortunato.” Fortunato’s name suggests good fortune, or of being fortunate, but he is exactly the opposite, he is killed. Another irony is when Fortunato follows Montresor go to the vault, Montresor acts like he cares about Fortunato’s health, “we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible.” (1202) But readers know from the beginning of the story, Montresor only wants to kill Fortunato. “And I to your long life,” (1202) Fortunato has lived out his life already, it is about to be over. Going deeper into the vaults, Fortunato gets more and more coughing, and Montresor shows his concern to Fortunato’s health “Come, we will go back ere it is too late. Your cough—“It is nothing.”(1202) But Montresor knows that the more he acts as he cares Fortunato, the more Fortunato wants to reach Amontillado-his dark fate. Fortunato is a man who is being blindly led to his death by someone who he feels as an admiring friend, but this friend is actually a person in searching for his own revenge.
He shows absolutely no remorse or any true interest in the effect that his actions will have. Even to go as far to make jokes at the expense of the future murder of his so called “friend.” Like Dr. Stout said, sociopaths can lead people to their impaling doom with much ease. The sheer ease of his master plan of revenge unfolding. His use of reverse psychology on people to have them ultimately do his true bidding. Playing with Fortunado’s trust to his own satisfaction and gain. He exhibits many traits of a sociopath throughout the story. Edgar Allan Poe is well known for doing this in many of his works as seen in classic works like The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart. The protagonists of these stories are also sociopathic, insane, vengeful and blood thirsty people who in reality are in fact the true antagonists. In each of their minds they believe they’re rightfully exacting justice and don’t see any error in their actions or just simply don’t care. They’re also cold, unfeeling, persuasive, and sinister murders who escalate small issues out of proportion. A sinister character is a recurring theme in Poe’s work and Montresor is surely no exception to this
Within the story, Montresor’s actions demonstrate his ambition to succeed in his plan to murder Fortunato. The reality that Montresor gets Fortunato intoxicated in an attempt to assist with the murder shows his potential in planning and pursuing a mission effectively. “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking today! But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado and I have my doubts.” (Poe 2) The way that Montresor words
Maybe Montresor is giving us his prideful details of how he got away with the perfect murder. Revealing to us that Montresor revenge was nothing more than a twisted plot of a psychopath "Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by deficits in personality and behavior. Personality deficits are marked by interpersonal and affective facets, including pathological lying, grandiose sense of self-worth, lack of remorse and callousness." (Thompson) . Montresor presents with three of the signs necessary to have a diagnosis antisocial behavior. According to Mayo Clinic, One of the symptoms is using charm or wit manipulate others for personal gain or sheer pleasure. Montresor proclaims that he smiles in Montresor 's face to hide his intention but "my smile now was at the thought of his immolation" (Poe), and he also states that " I was so pleased to him, that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand." two instances in the story where it could be interpreted as one of the symptoms. Another symptom is "Persistent lying or deceit to exploit others"(Mayo). The whole story of Montresor having a cask of Amontillado is predicated on a lie and almost everything he said to Fortunato was a lie from his intent on finding Luchresi to bring him to the wine to his outlandish lie about being a Mason..The last symptom that would make Montresor a
Montresor uses situational irony in the beginning, as the two fellows begin on their trudge to the Amontillado. In line 31 of the story. Montresor inquires his friend about his persistent cough. Saying “My poor friend found it impossible to reply for many minuets.” (Poe, 33) Montresor urges Fortunato to let him walk Fortunato back. To prevent his illness to worsen from the poor conditions of the Catacombs. “The cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.” “Enough.” (Poe, 36). Montresor is satisfied with the validity
When they arrive at the Montresor estate, Montresor leads Fortunato down the stairs into the catacombs. Down here is where the Amontillado Fortunato is going to taste and where the revenge of Montresor is going to take place. As he get closer and closer, the narrator opens up more and more to how he is going to kill his "friend". It sound like it is a premeditated murder. Montresor seems so inconspicuous that he acts like he cares about Fortunato which is still a part of his plan.
When looked at for the first time, Montresor in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado may seem disturbing. Montresor has plans to murder a man, Fortunato, for insulting him and plans on doing so by walling him up in the catacombs under his home. Montresor devises a clever plan that will leave Fortunato clueless as to his intensions. Upon a closer look, this character is admirable. Montresor carries out his plan successfully without being caught. He does this by using traits that are commendable at the very least. Montresor is Poe’s most admirable character because he is patient, extremely confident, and very calculated.