Cask Of Amontillado Montresor Unreliable

The story “Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story about how the narrator, Montresor, secretly murdered his friend Fortunato because of the “insults” he believe Fortunato made towards him. Montresor, the narrator of the story, came from an old, perhaps noble family. He possessed considerable taste in wines, paintings, etc. (The Cask of Amontillado), and it is evident that he is very smart. His entire plan of revenge was so well constructed (right timing (carnival), servants out (cause no suspicion)) ((The Cask of Amontillado)) that Montresor had to be a profoundly gifted person. Although there is no doubt that Montresor possesses considerable intelligence, as a narrator, he is unreliable; due to the fact that he is narrating in first person, the lack of evidence and detail in the story, and that he is mentally ill. The story uses a first-person narrator, and first-person narrators are never reliable (Introduction to Narratology: Unreliable Narrator). Montresor is dedicated to his own point of view, it is possible that he could have left out details, or they may be remembered

“THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (The Cask of Amontillado); Montresor never stated what those injuries are or what the insult was, so this must be a huge exaggeration. If Fortunato did insult Montresor in a way that Montresor had to take revenge by burying Fortunato alive; there is no way that Fortunato would be unaware of it to such a level that he would accompany Montresor into such an unpleasant place in Montresor’s house; so the insult must be an exaggeration and Montresor’s action is based around something he deems worthy of revenge but is not true. This proves that the story is biased to Montresor’s point of view and the narrator (Montresor) is