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…
his vengeance, intelligence, unwillingness to forgive. Montresor does not even care to dissimulate how badly he is craving revenge on Fortunato. It doesn’t exactly state what Fortunato did to make Montresor so vengeful, but, looking back, the reader can infer that he probably did not do anything too major. But concluding that since Montresor is insane, it was enough to push him over the edge and make him want to kill Fortunato. Montresor opens with a statement that makes himself sound like the victim because he endured “the thousand injuries of Fortunato… as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (Poe 61). Montresor is obviously exaggerating when he said that Fortunato inflicted a thousand injuries on him, he is making himself sound like the victim when the reader is exceptionally well aware that this is certainly not the case. Which again, is an example of his insanity and his unreliability. He does admit, however, that Fortunato did insult him, the reader is just unaware to what extent. Whatever Fortunato did to him, it is definitely not reason enough to think that it is okay to cold-bloodedly murder someone. All things considered, Montresor was very vengeful, and it is safe to say that almost nothing would have or could have stopped him getting his revenge that he desperately needed, while getting his revenge Montresor knew how to be intelligent about it. During the midst of his revenge, Montresor knew how to be sneaky, he knew how to lure in Fortunato, he said things that would appeal to Fortunato, Montresor was intelligent.
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…
Fortunato. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor gets the use out of irony to get Fortunato not not suspect a thing about what is to come.
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
Fortunato. Montresor was not afraid to indirectly show the reader that he is utterly insane, the only person he needs to hide this from is Fortunato, in his manner to hide his seek for vengeance, his intelligence, and his unwillingness to forgive he uses irony, which only the reader understands this as so. Right off the bat, Montresor shares his insanity and unreliability by saying he swore to get revenge, and when Montresor does so, he does it very carefully and being very intelligent. Which also goes to show how badly he wants to get Fortunato back, and how stubborn he is about not forgiving him. Irony is a very big part of the story because Montresor uses it often when he was talking to Fortunato, although Fortunato, too drunk to realize anything, did not know this. To sum up, Montresor’s insanity is the reason he is unreliable and his unreliability is the cause of his insanity.
In the story “The Cask of Amontillado”, the author uses lots of verbal irony to emphasize the evil intentions of Montresor.One of the examples of verbal irony in the story that he uses is “The cough’s a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.” and “true--true, I replied.” The effect of this irony is it that Montresor already knows how Fortunato will die.Another example of verbal irony used in the story was when they did a toast to each other. “I drink”, he said, to the buried that repose around us.”
It is constantly seen that people take revenge on each other in the real world so it comes to no surprise that Montresor is taking revenge on Fortunato. Specifically in this story Montresor will feel better if he “not only punish but punish with impunity” (108 Poe). But further on what I found to even more realistic was that this wasn’t normal revenge, this was pure mastermind torture. Montresor knew that Fortunato was sick with Montresor saying “…but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted”(109 Poe) regarding that he didn’t want Fortunato to come down to his vaults, but Montresor true intentions were wanting Fortunato to fight Montresor request of not coming, and it worked. Montresor also knew how well Fortunato was at differencing wine “I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter” (109 Poe). By Montresor exploiting Fortunato’s sickness and skill of wines, Montresor knew that he could get Fortunato in the vaults where he could execute his revenge. At a first glance this may not seem lifelike because there’s an assumption to be made that people aren’t this immoral. But the truth is that the revenge that Montresor conducted is seen constantly in our culture. It’s undeniably real of the monstrosity that was made by Montresor when comparing it to the wicked
In the Edgar Allan Poe stories "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" the most prominent and important themes that are used are death, logic, and irony. The characters of the narrator and Montresor in these stories are both coldblooded murders who kill for selfish and inane reasons who firmly believe that their actions are justified even though their justifications only make sense in their own minds. They both try to convince their audience that they are sane by explaining to them their reasons for killing their victims and admitting how they did it, which only helps to prove their insanity. The narrator and Montresor are similar in that they both have impaired senses of judgment encouraged by perverse morals and believe that the horrible things that they do are justifiable.
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.”
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.
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
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
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
“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
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.
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
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.
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
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