Almost, if not all, of the narrators in Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are unreliable. Georgetown University defines an unreliable narrator as someone who “typically displays characteristics or tendencies that indicate a lack of credibility or understanding of the story” and this could depend on “age, mental disability or personal involvement”. The narrator then ends up giving the reader “either incomplete or inaccurate information as a result of these conditions.” Some of the unreliable narrators in Poe’s stories are the creeper in The Telltale Heart, Montresor in The Cask of Amontillado, and the murderer in The Black Cat. They are all clinically insane, as they feel no remorse for any of their actions, and think nothing of what they did. They …show more content…
The alcohol factor doesn’t affect the way he acts, but it does affect the way he perceives things. In the story, there is a man (the narrator) who has a cat that he loves very much. However, he begins drinking a lot, and soon the cat begins to annoy him. One night, in a drunk rage, he grabbed the cat and cut its eye out. A few days later, he hangs the cat from a tree. He finds another cat later on and claims it as his own, but ends up almost killing it with an axe, but his wife stops him. Out of anger of his wife stopping him, he murders her. He then hides her body in the wall and accidentally walls the cat up with it. When the police come to interrogate a few days after, he covers his deed up nicely, but the cat begins meowing in the wall and the man gets caught. He thinks that, when he hung his cat, he did it out of love (6). The shocking part is, he admits to regretting it and crying at the loss of his cat. He says this on page 6, “One morning, in cold blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; - hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; - hung it because I knew it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offense, - hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin - a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it - if such a thing were …show more content…
He’s crazy, like the rest of them. In the story, the narrator, named Montresor, has an acquaintance named Fortunato whom he has been insulted so many times by that he vowed revenge. The most acceptable form of revenge, he thought, was murder. He planned it so intricately and carried it out so carefully that it worked out exactly his way. He began his plan by getting Fortunato alone and drunk, and telling him he had bought a very fine and expensive wine called Amontillado, but he wasn’t sure if it was genuine. Fortunato, being a wine expert, offered to confirm to Montresor if the wine was Amontillado. Montresor then used reverse psychology, saying that he could ask another friend of his, Luchesi, about the wine. He did this over and over again, intriguing Fortunato more and more as he led him into the catacombs under his house. He also uses reverse psychology in telling Fortunato that there is nitre all over his catacombs’ walls, and that Fortunato will get sicker than he already is from it. This also intrigues him more, and they keep going. Montresor also had made sure that he told his servants that he would be out all night and to absolutely not leave, but he knew that as soon as he was gone, they would leave (68). This would also be a good backup, because if the police ever came to investigate him, they wouldn’t think that someone who told his servants to stay home would bring anyone there to kill
The protagonists Montresor wants to get back at Fortunato for deeply insulting him and Montresor vows for revenge. During the fall carnival, he sees his opportunity and is quick to pounce on this and put his plan into place. “With Fortunato intoxicated and falling and stumbling all over the place Montresor knows that the time is now” (Russell 211). Montresor knows Fortunato’s weakness for wine and Montresor tells him he found Amontillado a very rare wine and it is in his vault. Montresor knows how far Fortunato will go for wine as rare as Amontillado and that is what eventually leads to his tormented and revengeful death.
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 did not show even by words that he is going to kill. Also, he did not let Fortunato to know that he intended any grudge against him “..neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will... He did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation (8-10).” One night while Fortunato was drunk, Montresor told him that he bought a barrel of wine called Amontillado “But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts (25).” He understood that Fortunato “prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine (12).” He attracted him to going to his house to check the drink by saying that he might invite Luchresi to do it, a seeming rival of Fortunato 's, instead “As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchresi. If any one has a critical turn it is he. He will tell me (37-38).” When they left, Montresor put on a mask and quickly took the way to his property. He was sure nobody could see them together on Fortunato 's last night. Moreover, Montresor completely knew Fortunato and used the knowledge versus him. He planned his deed carefully and carried it out slowly. It seems that Montresor anticipated his revenge with joy. While they traveled down the cavern, Montresor gives Fortunato many opportunities to leave. Fortunato looks weak against the niter, which is growing on the walls, and repeatedly coughs. Montresor commented on Fortunato 's health and asked
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
Carefully, cautiously the Montresor plotted precisely how he would exact revenge upon Fortunato. Much time and great energy was devoted to this plan, selecting a time that would be best: during carnival when the town would be celebratory, his servants apt to run off and join the celebration, when the two could silently disappear without notice or question. No detail is forgotten; he allows for no deterrents. He follows through with such a confidence that never does he stumble or hesitate in carrying out his plan. The Montresor indicates that he had never given. To continue with this ploy, he even goes so far as to express false concern for Fortunato as they pass through the catacombs. Blaming the nitre and damp, the Montresor suggests that they turn back as not to compromise Fortunato’s ill health, though he has no intent of doing so. Never once until the very end did Fortunato have cause to suspect that there were any foul plans afoot.
...at the hands of his master. The mutilation of its eye, hanging it to death from a tree and killing his wife, which had shown the cat love. There are two interpretations you can take away from this story, the logic of guilt or supernatural fantasy. Which conclusion will you take?
Montresor knows Fortunato’s greatest weakness which is his love for wine and uses it to draw him to his own death (Poe). He tells Fortunato of a special wine called Amontillado, making Fortunato hunger for the drink. Montresor leads him to his wine cellar and drugs him along the way. As Fortunato coughs on the way due to the dampness in the air, Montresor pretends to care and insists on turning around, but Fortunato refuses saying, “ The
In the beginning of the story, Edgar Poe stated “From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them.” The narrator is telling us how he was always known for his tenderness nature and his love for animals, yet he abused and killed his pet cat, Pluto, who showed nothing but affection towards him, and he killed his wife by “accidentally” stabbing her repeatedly with an axe.
Montresor seems so mad that he will not have sympathy. He says, “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity” (533). The quote shows that Montresor is insane because he wants to kill
Fortunato insulted the family of Montresor and that’s when Montresor decided to do something about it. In the reading Edgar Allan Poe states, “But he had one great weakness: he liked to drink good wine, and indeed he drank much of it.” The fact that Fortunato loved wine, gave Montresor the best approach to trick him into the family’s wine cellar. Montresor was a smart man and knew exactly what to do, so that Fortunato would not suspect anything. Montresor’s approach was to inform Fortunato that he had Amontillado wine
It was only an instant before he felt okay with the horrible act of murdering Fortunato. “For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat” (Poe 240). Rest in peace is what he says to Fortunato, which is ironic because it is not a peaceful way to die being buried alive and drunk. Montresor kills Fortunato, and he satisfied with what he has
Due to this grave insult, Montresor has vowed to seek revenge on Fortunato. On a night of celebration, Montresor promises Fortunato a taste of the wine Amontillado which lies in his family’s catacombs. He guides a drunk and gullible Fortunato through a series of chambers beneath the palazzo. When reaching to the final chamber, Fortunato awaits his fate, which is being buried alive in the catacombs. Due to his intense desire to seek
There are various types of unreliable narrators, each of them having distinct characteristics limiting them from supplying the reader with adequate or completely true information. In the short story, “The Black Cat,” Poe delineates the first person narrator as an insane man who has difficulty perceiving his actions as what they are, making him unreliable. These occurrences pose questions for the reader regarding the legitimacy of what the narrator says. Nevertheless, the man in whose perspective “The Black Cat” is told, is unreliable due to his lack of recognizing the severity of his actions, his questionable sanity, and his succeeding reactions from his doings which are startling to the reader. Initially, the narrator in
Montresor yearning for revengeance is not warranted and can have easily been dramatized in order to seem justified in the eyes of the reader. This was easily due to his first person narrative which
Fortunato is not sure about the genuineness of the wine and wants to check its quality. He also wants to show his expertise. The author knows the victim’s personality very well and takes advantage of it to carry out his plan of revenge. Montresor tries not to make Fortunato suspicious.