The Cask of Amontillado - Montresor’s Untrustworthiness and Mental Instability
The Cask of Amontillado - Montresor’s untrustworthiness and mental instability The cask of amontillado is a short story that Edgar Allen Poe wrote in 1846. Poe has written this particular story to be told in a first person point of view. Since Montresor is the narrator this concludes the fact that he is telling the story from his point of view. From the beginning it is clear that Montresor is an unreliable narrator. Throughout the story it is quite noticeable that Montresor is not trustworthy as a narrator, and that he has a mental instability. The very first sentence it shows that this story is going to be told by Montresor (from a first person point of view). In the first sentence of the first paragraph Montresor claims Fortunato has bestowed “thousand injuries” against him. Even though Fortunato has supposedly insulted Montresor; Montresor never goes on to state what exactly Fortuanto has done to him. Next he states that he “vowed revenge” on Fortunato. Just from the one sentence Montresor shows he has a bias for how the story happened and played out. The next sentence is Montresor talking to an unknown person, basically telling then that he is going to diverge the story to them. “You, who so well know the nature of my soul…” is how Montresor addresses this person. How he has addressed the unknown person gives the idea that it might be a priest whom he is speaking to. If it is assumed that it is a priest, it could be interpreted as a sign of remorse. Although after reading the whole story it is quite clear that he does not regret what he has done to Fortunado. Throughout the story Montressor talks of what he has done to Fortunado with little to no remorse in his voice. “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity” shows that Montressor knew completely well what he was about to do to his ‘friend’ and has not the slightest though of not doing it. Not only does Montresor plan to punish Fortunado but with impunity, which means without exemption. He