Narration Analysis Of the Cask Of Amontillado

The first-person narration style of "The Cask of Amontillado" is essential in creating the original quality of the story. The reason this is so important in this particular story, is because when a sane killer, Montresor, is allowed to tell the story from his point of view, the reader gets a unique, disturbing look into the calmness of his mind. The audience can more clearly see how he thinks and feels, which the audience does not normally get in mainstream, commercial literature. The reason the narration style is so important to the tone of the story, is because it lets the reader become personally acquainted with the thoughts and intentions of the main character, and since the reader somewhat knows the outcome from the beginning, it allows certain ironies to make sense to the reader. Furthermore, were it told from a different perspective, I do not believe the story would have been as psychologically powerful.

First person narration "can evoke a stronger emotional attachment with readers; from the first instance, the reader connects with the main protagonist. It is his/her voice, thoughts and feelings being portrayed, therefore, this is the person the reader is most likely to bond with" (Wright). This first-person style of narration establishes a more personal connection between the reader and the narrator, who in this case is also the main character. In "The Cask of Amontillado" the narrator often talks to the audience in a very familiar tone, as if he knows the reader: "You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat" (Poe, 617-618). This is one of the first lines of the story, but it is spoken as if the narrator were good friends with the reader. This proverbially allows the narrator to open up right away and tell his story fully and in detail.

This immediate familiarity helps the reader to see inside the calculating mind of Montresor, whom we later learn is a killer. When talking about the past insults of Fortunato, he takes on a cold, determined tone: “At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled […] I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong” (Poe, 618).