Some narrators lie, and some are trustworthy, but how can you tell? Edgar Allen Poe authored the stories Cask of Amontillado and The Raven. The narrators in the story both portray distinct characteristics that make them reliable or unreliable. The narrator in The Cask of Amontillado provides details to believe him to be reliable and trustworthy while he plans out and follows through on his idea to get revenge on Fortunato, someone who had insulted him many times. On the other hand, the narrator in The Raven leads readers to believe that he is insane and unreliable by talking to a bird and thinking that it was sent by his dead wife. While some may argue that the narrator in the Raven is more reliable, Montresor was shown to be saner than the narrator in the Raven, proving him to be more reliable because he is in the right mind while telling the story and had a reason as to why he killed Fortunato. According to the M’Naghten Rule, if you do not understand what was wrong with the crime committed, they are said to be insane. After Montresor had buried alive Fortunato, he began to feel guilty and then felt …show more content…
Although Montresor had killed someone, making people think that he is not reliable, he was still in his right mind while telling the story. Whereas the narrator in the Raven was not fully right and was just in grief thinking everything had to do with the passing of his wife, making him unreliable and seem a bit insane. In the story, The Raven, it states, “respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!” The narrator talks about Lenore to the bird thinking that the raven was sent by her. Claiming that the bird was talking back to him is enough reason to believe that he was not in the right mind, but also the fact that he was not thinking right and was just concerned for his dead wife proves him to be unreliable and makes him look like he is slightly
Should one trust the accounts of the main characters in “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Yellow Wallpaper?” “The Cask of Amontillado” is written by Edgar Allan Poe. In the “Cask of Amontillado,” a man named Montresor tells of a time when he uses deception to murder a man that he perceives has done wrong against him. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is in the format of journal entries that are written by a woman whose mental health is deteriorating. The deterioration of her mental health leads her to suffer from hallucinatory thinking. How reliable are the narrators? Reliability encompases the honesty the narators exhibit twoards the readers,
There is a lot to talk about Armand character in the short story of Desiree’s baby. In the beginning of the story, he is such a great person he loves Desiree. This quote “beautiful and gentle” shows that Armand is fall in love with her. However, his character change, when he found out that baby wasn’t white. His character of being a good husband to a cruel husband. The story clearly explains his initial character and final character. I believe he is not pitiable at all because he shows his cruelty character toward Desiree and not only that, he cares about his social standing, which motivates him. When he bought “fine clothing and layettle” this shows a symbolic object of wealth and his possession of Desiree. He wouldn’t act in a cruel way if
Montresor is a man who feels pride in himself and in his family, so when Fortunato—an acquaintance of Montresor— “venture[s] upon insult,” Montresor “vow[s] revenge” against him (1). Montresor hastily decides that he must kill Fortunato, even though his use of the word “venture” implies that Fortunato had not yet insulted him, but nearly did. Montresor’s impulsive need for revenge causes him to formulate a plan to murder his acquaintance. He keeps Fortunato intoxicated by “presenting him…[with] wine,” he “fetter[s] him to the granite,” and he “plaster[s] up… [a wall of] new masonry” to trap Fortunato in the catacombs (39, 71, 89). All of these acts are signs that the need for revenge has made Fortunato insane. A person who has any sense of morals would not commit crimes such as Montresor’s. His impetuous decision to exact revenge caused him to lose his
In the Cask of Amontillado, our narrator’s situation is one he is quite happy being in. Our narrator is Montresor, an Italian man rich with pride, and you quickly learn through his narration that he is intelligent, conniving, and extremely sinister. Throughout the story, everything Montresor does is motivated by one thing, his own thirst for vengeance. Montresor explains his actions are a result of Fortunato constantly abusing him and finally going too far, but he never explains anything Fortunato has done to insult him. When we meet Fortunato, he is extremely friendly towards Montresor, albeit a little intoxicated, so much that he makes Montresor’s story of “a thousand injuries” seem unbelievable (Cask 1). Compared to Gilman’s narrator whose spiral out of control was triggered by her forced seclusion from the outside world, it seems that Montresor’s insanity come from inside his own head. There is no evidence that suggest any attempts by Fortunato to belittle or insult Montresor in any way. I believe that Montresor may have been jealous of Fortunato’s success in life, and that is what drove him to vengeance. For example, on their way to the catacombs Fortunato makes a hand gesture of the Masons, a secret brotherhood, which Montresor doesn’t understand. Fortunato ask if Montresor is a Mason and for him to prove it, and Montresor lies and shows his trowel (Cask 5). This proves that
No matter how well executed, a crime of this magnitude will leave scars on the conscience, thus marring it’s perfection. Conflicting psychological emotions and actions plague the journey causing inner conflict ranging between pity and revulsion by the time the narrator concludes. Notwithstanding the shortage of information on Montresor’s life in the ensuing fifty years since Fortunato’s death; it can be surmised from the events leading to the murder that Montresor does, in fact, have a conscience and that it builds upon itself as the action
Montresor does have some disconnect or mental problem. He wishes to kill Fortunato for insulting him, but he never specifies what insult it was. He also states he has borne a thousand injuries. This is an exaggeration- Montresor only says this because he needs a reason to kill Fortunato. If Fortunato has done anything to deserve a painful death, he would certainly know, but Montresor does not let fortunato know what he has done and states "neither by word nor deed had [Montresor] given Fortunato cause to doubt [his] goodwill." Montresor's madness is also made clear by his method of killing Fortunato; he suffocates him in a wall built in f...
Montresor is filled with regret that he took revenge so cruelly, “My heart grew sick,” (Poe 548). He was manipulated by his own pride and became the fool in the end, rather than Fortunato. Poe displays the Fortunato as a proud man at first, however Montresor’s pride is shown when he feels the first pangs of guilt but refuses to release Fortunato. He regretted his decision to kill Fortunato, however Montresor’s pride wouldn’t allow him to stop. Poe used these moments to subtly reveal Montresor’s
Expressing that psychologically, psychopathy is a mental disorder that typically has a tendency to lead back to a cell deficiency in the brain. Knowing that what Montresor believes is correct in his mind will show that he may possibly have a cell deficiency. The control the brain has over the mind is fascinating, therefore one can only follow actions that the brain pursues the mind to do. Montresor continues to use his manipulative skills that he is possessing from being a psychopath. He has a lack of remorse and guilt which leads him to happily feel sadistic gratification. Perceiving his revenge, he sub stains to pathologically lying so that he is able to put his revenge into action. Along with the traits Montresor possesses of psychopathology, his family motto “nemo me impune lacessit” has the possibility of maintain a genetic cause due to his family history of exulting revenge on those who treat them wrong. Montresor enjoys the revenge he is instilling on Fortunato, which follows his death. He pushes his family motto to the limits of exactly what it is meant to imply. Noticing that overall, the traits Montresor shows of a psychopath remains certainly made aware
In the “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor believes Fortunado is his greatest enemy and in return for revenge he must kill him. He achieves his goal through a depraved plan, in which he manipulated Fortunado to drink until he lost his senses for the amontillado. In “Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe depicts the murderer has no valid reason to kill the old man. The murderer’s sanity comes into question many times when the story takes place. The first sentence in the story proves this statement: “TRUE! – NERVOUS – VERY, VERY DREADFUL nervous I had been and am; but why will you say I am mad?” (Charter 1127). The narrator himself questions the audience before telling the incident that has occurred. In this story, the murder plot is not planned and takes place all of the sudden when the insane man decides to kill the fragile old man who is on the alert
Montresor’s actions can then be explained due to Antisocial Personality Disorder. “A person who has this disorder overlooks the rights of others, is incapable of loyalty to others or to social values, is unable to experience guilt or to learn from past behaviors, is imperious to punishment, and tends to rationalize his or her behavior or to blame it on others" (MacKenzie). Antisocial personality disorder affects a person and their ability to function properly in society. Montresor had Antisocial Personality Disorder since he acted irrationally and blamed his action on Fortunato. Montresor kept justifying his actions and convincing himself he was doing what was right. By Montresor refuses to recognize his actions he further showed that he had Antisocial Personality Disorder. Montresor also was unable to ever feel remorse to Montresor and did not have any guilt. For these reasons presented, it can be justified that Montresor suffered from Antisocial Personality Disorder. This diagnosis would help justify to the reader his strange behavior and his desire to seek revenge on Fortunato. By analyzing the characteristics of Antisocial Personality Disorder, it explains Montresor’s desire for revenge, manipulation and lack of empathy for
In “The Cask of Amontillado” it is safe to assume that Montresor suffers no repercussions for his entrapment of Fortunato. Perhaps he experiences a fleeting sense of guilt that he expresses through his retelling of his quest for revenge, but there is not much else within the story that would suggest Montresor experienced any other form of punishment. In “The Black Cat” however, the reader is immediately made aware that the narrator is suffering for his crimes. The narrator plainly states that he is on death’s row and that the actions that he engaged in have caused him great suffering. If the actions of Montresor and our anonymous narrator of “The Black Cat” had been committed today, would they be excused on the grounds of insanity? There is little evidence to suggest that Montresor was not mentally stable. Of course, to be able to partake in such an extreme act of vengeance one must be disturbed in some way or another. But without proper causation, there would likely be no excuse. As for the narrator of “The Black Cat”, the insanity defense might be used to some extent to explain his actions and motives for his violent crimes. The narrator was affected by alcoholism early in the story and was not in his right mind. He stated that he tried to resist the urges of violence within himself, but ultimately could not. Because of the narrator’s conflicting emotions and the heavy
In his article “On Memory Forgetting, and Complicity in “the Cask of Amontillado”” Raymond DiSanza suggests that an act of wrongdoing is always at the heart of good horror stories. (194) DiSanza’s article on “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe describes Poe’s writing in a way I didn’t think of myself. DiSanza finds Poe’s language in this story to “taste like amontillado: smooth, slightly sweet, and appropriately chilled”. (DiSanza 195) Throughout his article he mostly talks about what possibly could have been Montresor’s motive to kill Fortunato? And why did Montresor wait fifty years to tell the story?
Montresor is the main character who is narrating from the viewpoint of someone in the story that is being told. This gives bias towards Montresor because the audience feels the need to root for him since he is telling the story. Montresor, in the beginning, is able to justify the acts he is about to do, while we are not able to hear Fortunato defend or explain what he has done to Montresor that would cause him to take those actions. “…but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” (Poe 108). Since it is told through Montresor, the readers are also able to hear what his thoughts are. This adds an extra layer to the story by giving not only what he is saying to Fortunato to get him to do what he wants, but also his true intentions and thought processes while he is executing his master plan. He explains to the readers that he manipulated his servants into leaving his house for the night so that no one would witness Fortunato at his home. “These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their immediate disappearance…” (Poe
Most readers would agree that Montressor, the protagonist in Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado", is mad to at least some degree. Is Montressor merely a twisted individual bent upon revenge or a man who lacks a superego? Assuming the latter is true, Fortunato was perhaps doomed for no reason discernable to someone possessing an ordered subconscious in which the superego assists the ego in policing the id. The injuries and insults visited by him upon Montressor might have been based on something so trivial as to confound the average man, or perhaps they existed only in the mind of the madman.
As the story begins, Fortunato believes he and Montresor are friends or at the very least friendly. However, Montresor is secretly plotting Fortunato’s murder. Montresor believes that Fortunato has given a “thousand injuries” and it is not until he “insults” Montresor that Montresor springs into action. Unfortunately, it is never explained if these injuries and insults really happened or if they are a delusion. Montresor makes an unreliable narrator and one gets the feeling he suffers from a psychological disorder, such as delusional paranoid personality disorder. This disorder causes the victim to become obsessed with a delusion “involving a phenomenon that the person’s culture could conceivably regard as plausible.” They often believe “they have been injured by friends or strangers, and they tend to see other persons as enemies.” Montresor gives the impression he and Fortunato have known each other for an extended amount of time. Montresor knows more about Fortunato than Fortunato knows about Montresor; possibly because Fortunato is constantly drunk.