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Summary Of Montresor And Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado

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With the evolution of humanity comes the evolution of words, as is only natural. In the recent past, insanity was a medical term used to diagnose mental illnesses, among others. It’s still used in a similar manner in everyday language, though it has formally shifted to a legal definition, which is that the defendant cannot tell right from wrong. In literature, authors who create “insane” characters add to the unreliability of first person narrators, thus adding another layer of questions for the reader, such as whether a character is fully aware of their actions. After Fortunato insults Montresor in “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor takes it upon himself to punish Fortunato by bricking him into a wall of the Montresor family vaults. Doug Spaulding, from Ray Bradbury’s “The Utterly Perfect Murder”, also takes revenge on his tormentor by figuratively murdering him and rescuing his childhood self. According to the legal definition of insanity, both Montresor and Doug Spaulding fit the criteria due to their unsettled minds, trauma from abusive relationships and other underlying mental health issues. Throughout both stories, Montresor and Doug Spaulding present themselves as unsettled, though in different fashions. For Montresor, he is fixated on the supposed insult visited upon him by Fortunato in a manner baffling to the average person. Indeed, not only does Montresor vow revenge, but “[a]t length”, meaning he will take this insult, whatever it may be,

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