Amontillado Montresor Traits

The Cask of Amontillado: Character Analysis - Presentation Transcript

1. Bianca Monique Bargas

2. Amontillado is pale medium-dry sherry from Spain

. Character Analysis

3. Montresor

4. Insane

. Montresor's motive for murder is uncertain other than the vague & quot; thousand injuries & quot; to which he refers.

. Many commentators conclude that, lacking significant reason, Montresor must be insane, though even this is questionable because of the intricate details of the plot.

5. Very Intelligent

. the cleverly and carefully planned murder hasn’t been discovered till his death.

. The whole murder is arranged in details.

. his visible
He is dedicated to his own point of view, which is cold, merciless, brutal, conniving, and vengeful. He doesn’t mind telling us about his torture and murder of Fortunato; indeed, he thinks what he did was the just, right way to handle the situation.

Given his brutality and insensitivity, it might surprise you to learn that Montresor’s point of view also involves poetry and writing. A quick look at Poe’s philosophy of fiction writing will help you see how we come to this conclusion.

In addition to the idea of “secret writing,” which we discuss in “What’s Up With the Title,” Poe was very concerned with the form his stories should take. He wanted each story to be a little puzzle, with all sorts of hidden pieces we have to try to pick out ourselves. You can see this idea in the tight structure of “The Cask.” 

Poe also believed that lyric poetry, or poetry that “is characterized by the expression of the poet’s innermost feelings, thoughts, and imagination” was the highest form of writing, and he wanted to bring short story writing up to the level of lyric poetry. 

When we take all that into account, Montresor’s confession/brag-fest begins to look suspiciously meta-fictional. Meta-fiction means that a story or a moment in the story comments on the writing process in some way. It tells us how the author feels about writing.

Because Montresor is the guy telling the story, he becomes symbolic of the writer and is likely to have some of the
Critic and teacher Charles N. Nevi says that it’s a crime not to talk about irony when talking about “The Cask.” Irony basically means that somebody says one thing, but means the opposite. A good example is when there is only one stone left to fit into the wall, and Fortunato says, “Let us be gone.” This is ironic because he’d have to be a complete fool to think Montresor is going to undo all those layers of bricks and let him out. He’s hoping against hope. 

Montresor’s reply is even more ironic, “Yes, let us be gone.” He’s torturing Fortunato with his irony – and has been all along. Come to think of it, he’s been torturing us with irony, too. We never know if he means if he means what he says.

Irony is a kind of “play.” We aren’t talking about a stage production, but rather, the use of language in a playful way. In this case, the stylistic play is twisted and