Character Analysis Of Montresor

In the very last paragraph, second to last sentence Montresor states: “For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them.” This sentence is referring to the tomb where he has entombed Fortunado to die, as well as the tomb of his other ancestors. Half of a century is at least fifty years, thus Montresor is stating that it has been over fifty years since the incident thus he could have easily forgotten what actually happened in the tomb. Most people can not even remember what happened a year ago one hundred percent accurately, much less fifty years later.

Some people believe that Fortunato should have seen Montresor’s evil plan coming, and that he deserved this fate. At the very beginning of the story, Montresor “The thousand

Keep your friends close but your enemies closer. One person who takes this quote to an entirely new level is Montresor from “The Cask of Amontillado”. In this short story by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor has had enough of his boorish friend Fortunato and vows for revenge. Before Montresor's retaliation, he approaches the sickly Fortunato and offers him some of the rare Amontillado which he has locked away in the cellar of his home. While on their way to retrieve the alcohol, Montresor tells Fortunato to drink for his heavy cough, intoxicating him more with each sip. Once they arrive at the cellar, Montresor tricks Fortunato to his death by walling him up brick by brick. Montresor however wouldn’t have been able to go

Poe starts out with a man, by the name of Montresor, wanting revenge on another man, named Fortunato. Most of the story takes place deep in the Montresor family catacombs. As Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs, he chains Fortunato up to a small hole in a wall, bricks it over, and leaves Fortunato to die. Even through the traits of anger, hatred, and revenge, as the story progresses on, Montresor, the main character in “The Cask of Amontillado”, starts to show signs of feeling guilty for wanting to murder Fortunato.

Feuds and arguments between individuals who may disagree with or dislike one another are a common occurrence in everyday life, often varying in degrees of intensity, but rarely reaching a point of extremity. However, in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado”, This threshold of extremity is reached by the narrator of the story, Montresor, who explains that his acquaintance, Fortunato, has repeatedly and irreparably insulted him over the course of years, and uses it as justification to take justice into his own hands and seek retribution through murder, despite there being no proof of Fortunato's guilt other than Montresor’s claims. His motive for murdering Fortunato can be attributed to his state of mind, as Montresor’s lack of guilt, empathy, or remorse highlights him as a character with psychopathic tendencies. As the story progresses, Montresor’s cold and calculating nature leaves the audience full of dread and suspense while he lures the oblivious Fortunato towards his inevitable demise. The employment of rhetorical devices such as irony, theme, and structure builds the suspense for the ultimate climax of Poe’s gothic masterpiece.

Montresor is the brutally insensitive narrator and presents his story from a unique first person perspective. Poe was intricate in telling this story from his point of view. He could have chosen to paint a picture for the readers through the eyes of Fortunato or possibly an outside narrator’s perspective. Poe makes an interesting decision as to who was going to tell the story. Significantly, he does not explain the nature of Fortunato’s transgression through Montresor's point of view. To explain further, Montresor tells the story in the first person, the reader is able to be directly aware of his thoughts therefore

All of these images of the setting and characters come together with the idea of Montresor’s premeditated demise for Fortunado. From the beginning we know that Montresor is upset with Fortuado and he is seeking revenge. With all of Montresor’s comments we see that this is not just talk but a reality. When the two men are discussing turning around due to Fortunado’s cough, Fortunado says, “I shall not die of a cough” which in reply Montresor says “true.” (Poe page 3) This foreshadows the demise of Fortunado, and what Montresor has in mind for him. Another example of this is when they discuss Montresor’s family crest, that his family moto is “Nemo me impune lacessit” (Poe page 3) which means no one attacks me without paying dearly. Along with this statement, is when he tells Fortunado that his family are of the masons, foreshadowing the way he will kill Fortunado.

Montresor is trying to lure Fortunato to his vaults by telling him that Luchresi can just come and taste the Amontillado because he knows best. He knows Fortunato will freak out by this statement, and then show Montresor that he is wrong in saying that. Indeed, this leads Fortunato down into the catacombs, just so he can prove Montresor wrong. That 's when Montresor will take his final step in his plan to end Fortunato. This event leads to the most suspenseful part in the short story. The reader doesn’t know what Montresor’s next step is going to be in his plan, along with what stupid move is Fortunato going to take to leading himself closer to his death.

Edgar Allen Poe’s tale of murder and revenge, “The Cask of Amontillado”, offers a unique perspective into the mind of a deranged murderer. The effectiveness of the story is largely due to its first person point of view, which allows the reader a deeper involvement into the thoughts and motivations of the protagonist, Montresor. The first person narration results in an unbalanced viewpoint on the central conflict of the story, man versus man, because the reader knows very little about the thoughts of the antagonist, Fortunato. The setting of “The Cask of Amontillado”, in the dark catacombs of Montresor’s wine cellar, contributes to the story’s theme that some people will go

"The Cask of Amontillado" is one of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest stories. In this story Poe introduces two central characters and unfolds a tale of horror and perversion. Montresor, the narrator, and Fortunato, one of Montresor's friends, are doomed to the fate of their actions and will pay the price for their pride and jealousy. One pays the price with his life and the other pays the price with living with regret for the rest of his life. Poe uses mystery, irony, and imagery to create a horrifying, deceptive, and perverse story.

First, Poe uses different points of views to develop characterization in antagonists and protagonists in short stories. In "The Cask of Amontillado", Poe uses first person point of view to describe the protagonist. Montresor's (protagonist) character develops through his actions and feelings. He is shown to be deceiving, claiming," he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation." (The Cask of Amontillado, 1) The quote suggests of Montresor's slyness/sneakiness. Montresor's character develops through the story over time. The story is shown to be written as a confession, almost as the character Montresor himself had been trapped with his guilt as he trapped Fortunato; literally. As the story progresses, Montresor becomes more manipulative and dark as he carries out his plan. Fortunato (antagonist) is portrayed to be silly and non-serious, as he had been

Poe’s use of characterization conveys the theme that sadism is unnatural and does not occur solely in one’s self. In “Cask of Amontillado” Montresor has been insulted by Fortunato, “The thousand of injuries i had borne as best i could; but when he ventured upon insult, i vowed revenge” (Poe). Montresor cared little of Fortunato’s endeavors until he insulted him.. He was provoked and then sought out to seek his revenge and kill Fortunato. His sadistic thoughts were developed due to Fortunato actions towards him, not due to his natural behavior. Poe characterized Montresor to feed into his dark sadistic actions once a reason was valuable enough.

     Finally, they reach the end on the catacombs and the Amontillado is near. Then, suddenly Montressor throws Fortunato and fettered him on the wall in a little aperture. He Builds a crypt with a trowel and masonry slowly circumscribing him. Fortunato will slowly suffocate and die. He is almost done laying the stones when Fortunato begs him to let him out and lets him know that the joke was very good but Montressor is not joking. He lays the last block and clamored can be heard through the walls. Slowly the noise died down and Montressor absconded to let Fortunato repose. Of course, then Fortunato perceived what he had done.

Poe portrays the psychotic state of Montressor using the technique of an unreliable narrator. An unreliable narrator is a character that cannot be trusted. Many times the perspective of the narration is from the first person point of view and is usually biased, as this portrays the motives of the narrator. From Montressor’s words, we as readers can sympathize with him or even see him as a fool. He has a paranoid state when the story opens as shown in the lines, “You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat”(231). The “You” is ambiguous, it can be interpreted as if Montressor is

Edgar Allan Poe portrays conflict by creating tension between Montresor and Fortunato. In the story, tension is merely only seen through the eyes of Montressor because of the animosity that he has against Fortunato for the cursing of his family's name which was one of an old and honored one. Montresor states his revenge by saying “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed my revenge.” Montresor is stating that he had been able to bear insults, but once his family's name was insulted, he was driven to seek revenge from this humility. Montresor's evil intentions to murder Fortunato come solely from Fortantos insulting demeanor. The conflict that is shared between Fortunato and Montresor is the main factor which creates the theme of revenge in this story.