Similarities Between Montresor And Zaroff

Antisocial personality disorder is a mental illness in which a person has a continuous eagerness to manipulate, abuse, or violate the rights and freedom of others (Merrill). Sociopaths generally believe their own behaviours are normal and show no guilt when hurting others. However they are able to act witty and charming at the same time which help to hide their mental issuesfrom victims (“Personality Disorder”). For instance, Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006), the CEO of Enron Corporation, who involved in a corruption scandal and caused the downfall of the company. Lay used his charm and intelligence to convey his employees and investors to continue investing in his tanking company. He showed no empathy and responsibility

when he continuously created misleading financial reports to bamboozle investors into an accounting fraud (“Famous People with Antisocial Personality Disorder”). Antisocial personality disorder can be found in the short stories “The Cask of Amontillado” written by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Most Dangerous Game” written by Richard Connell. In the former, Montresor acts like a friend who cares about Fortunato, but indeed Montresor has a plan to kill him. In the latter, General Zaroff is found to be the most thoughtful and affable because of his finest living style. However he is actually a cold-blooded murderer as he kills humans for excitement. Both Montresor and General Zaroff use politeness and friendliness to conceal their cruelty and selfishness. The two characters differ, however, in the reason of killing. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor kills Fortunato because of personal vendetta that has been accumulated over his thousand injuries, he justifies his murder as a form of revenge. By contrast, in “The Most Dangerous Game”, General Zaroff feels nothing towards Rainsford, he kills for no specific reasons and Rainsford is just one of the unfortunate victims.
Montresor and General Zaroff have similar behaviours in the stories.

They first appear as gentlemen in order to lure the potential victims into their trap, then when the victims believe their lies they reveal their cruelty and violence through a series of events. First, in “The Cask of Amontillado” Montresor shows up as a caring friend to approach and beguile Fortunato, when Fortunato has built trust Montresor eliminates him brutally. For example, in the beginning of the story Montresor claims Fortunato’s “‘health is precious’” because he is “‘rich, respected, admired, [and] beloved’”. He wants Fortunato to “‘go back’” (Poe 3) and claims he will find Luchresi for help. Poe uses the interactions between Montresor and Fortunato in the early stage to create dramatic irony as well as an uncertain relationship to attract readers to continue the story. The masterminded Montresor pretends he actually cares about Fortunato’s health to gain trust and keeps on asking if Fortunato would like return, but indeed the caring and questioning are the use of reverse psychology that encourages Fortunato to be more determined to continue the journey. General Zaroff in “The Most Dangerous Game” has similarly shown civilized behaviour and brutality but to an even greater degree. In the story, General Zaroff is a well-educated man, who lives in a luxurious mansion with the finest lifestyle, but he has no ethics and morals. He hunts humans because they are “courage[ous], cunning,” (Connell

7) and unpredictable which satisfies his own desire. When Rainsford requests to “leave this [the] island at once” (10), as a host General Zaroff unexpectedly suggests that Rainsford could leave the island only if he wins the “outdoor chess” (10). Connell sarcastically uses General Zaroff to show that even an educated, upper-class person can be selfish, wild, and soulless. The worst of all, the “outdoor chess” does not only involve in mental and physical abuse, but also the despairing hope that is torturing victims because they know it is impossible to compete with a professional hunter. Nonetheless, “outdoor chess” shows that General Zaroff believes hunting human is just a game, ergo when victims (the pawns) are killed he shows no regret and emotion as long as General Zaroff (the king) is alive. As noted, General Zaroff a far more inhumane than Montresor, and the reason for this has to do with the method of killing. Whereas Fortunato in “The Cask of Amontillado” does not know he is going to die nor how will he die, the victims in “The Most Dangerous Game” know exactly what is going to happen and the consequence of losing the game. As the victims need to stay alert until the midnight of the third day, even for a professional hunter like Rainsford. Not to mention, both characters are excel at acting, which use to hide their brutality until the last minute.
Both Montresor and General Zaroff murder but the nature is different.

In the former, Montresor has a specific goal and target, while in the latter General Zaroff kills for entertainment. Firstly, Montresor has a clear objective – to revenge and a targeted victim – Fortunato. In the beginning of the story, Montresor has stated that he “vow[s] revenge” to make Fortunato pays for the “wrong[s]” has done to him that Fortunato never “redress[es]” (Poe 1). An obvious foreshadowing that shows the fate of Fortunato helps readers focus on the process of the revenge. Generally when a person does something wrong, that person will receive punishment through legal process. However, Montresor has enough hatreds and damages from Fortunato that he decides to become the judge, jury and executioner of his case. Thus, the “revenge” may not be fair and justified because it contains personal feelings. In contrast, General Zaroff entertains himself through murdering, there is no specific targets which makes General Zaroff even more barbaric. General Zaroff loves hunting but hunting animals “has no longer fascinated me [him]” because they all have “mathematical certainty”. He then decides to hunt humans because he wants the excitements and he believes “[l]ife is for the strong, to be lived by the strong… If I [he] wish[es] to hunt, why should I [he] not?” (Connell 6). Ergo, General Zaroff does not have any personal feelings when murdering humans as he believes “[l]ife is for the

strong”, victims are killed simply because they are not strong enough to survive. In the story, Rainsforf is a foil to General Zaroff, presenting the point of view of the readers and allows them to compare and catch up General Zroff’s chain of thoughts, as well as contrasting the cruelty of General Zaroff and readers’ ethnic and moral. In conclusion, both characters are brutal during the process of murder. However, one has a specific goal, one doesn’t. It is perhaps possible for readers to have some sympathy for Rainsford as a victim, more so than for Fortunato. While Fortunato is killed because of his previous mistakes, Rainsford is nearly killed because of General Zaroff’s personal desire.
Sociopaths do not differ from other normal people based on their appearances, hence they are difficult to differentiate and avoid. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Fortunato is killed because Montresor wants to revenge. However, Fortunato’s death could be avoided if he realizes Montresor is a hypocrite, he then would be vigilant when Montresor says he has bought Amontillado in the carnival which is extraordinary. General Zaroff in “The Most Dangerous Game” is considered to be cruel and lunatic because he kills for entertainment and regards humans as preys, while using his finest lifestyle as a cover. The message of in both stories is similar – do not judge a book by its cover, which is a cliché that everyone should know but people still fall for it. This is a golden rule in nowadays’ society, especially on international politics, where Canadian, American, British, etc. governments spy on their citizens and encroach on citizens’ privacy through communication systems, it is suggested that the surveillance is used to pursue politic, military, and economic goals. Yet they lie and claim the surveillance is used as a protection from potential terrorism.