Character of Vengeance: The Cask of Amontillado

In this world, revenge, among all other things, depicts the human wanting revenge as mad, insane, unreliable, but also indirectly showing them as mysterious , sly human beings. The concept behind revenge is very simple, and the intent of all with vengeance is harm. Montressor, the protagonist, in Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Cask of Amontillado, is full of hate for Fortunato, although the reason is unknown. Marcus Aurelius once said, “To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.” Revenge is not for the decent, and Montressor is clearly blinded by his hate, to the point where Montressor is deemed unreliable, and his sly and mysterious ways are concealed by the festive mood of the story.

The mysterious actions along with Montressor’s mad ways lead the reader to deem the narrator unreliable. Right away, Montressor begins his story by saying, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 344). As shown in this quote, and with the words following soon after, Montressor does not clearly tell us what the motive behind his revenge is, making the reader feel uncertain. The tone that the story is narrated in also creates a vibe of unreliability for everything is not explained thoroughly. Immediately, the reader judges the narrator to be not reliable based upon the first paragraph of the story. Also, Montressor does not appear to have photographic memory; however, his impeccable memory of even the slightest of details raises eyebrows. Also, in modern day, one of the most common defenses for murder is insanity, which very well may be the case in this story. Poe writes, “For half a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!” (351). The fact tha...

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...ABLY SHOULD REDO AFTER HERE Here, Montresor is intoxicating Fortunato to drink the wine to make him more easy to influence. He planned everything with such detail and in the end, his slyness resulted in what he wanted, to pull off a stunt that follows his checklist. Another part of Montresor’s plan was to act friendly to Foruntato. He says, “’You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy’”(Poe 347). The sheer number of adjectives used is very clearly meant to flatter, to gain trust. From here, Montresor acts upon Fortunato, and his slyness helps him reach his goal, the death of Fortunato.

Although he appears thoughtful, Montressor is truly evil with his intentions and his mysteriousness and slyness helps establish the fact that he is unreliable. Montresor has murdered, and any that murder are unreliable and insane. Poe portrays Montresor as unreliable.