Trust the Narrator -- Montresor

¶ … Trust the Narrator -- Montresor and the Cask of Amontillado

The Cask of Amontillado, written by Edgar Alan Poe, first appeard in print in 1846. Like the Tell-Tale Heart, the story forces the reader to first ascribe to the narrator's point-of-view, giving hints here and there about the accuracy of such information. One of the most eerie aspects of the story, in fact, is the way that the vagueness of "setting" - of not knowing really where we are, but realizing the locations are central to the plot. In fact, much of the plotline remains vague (a nameless city, unspecified year, unspecified cause of anger). Soon, however, the reader comes to know that the narrator, Montresor, is in fact the murderer and that it is he who takes his revenge on Fortunato, over some unspecified insult.

Poe crafts the story carefully, almost like he is spinning a web to reel in the unsuspecting reader -- first through extemporaneous speech, almost as if he were giving a summation to the Court…. The "thousand injuries" that he Montresor suffered at the hands of Fortunato. Exaggerated prose, a tendency towards the dramatic, and the reader is already in the psychological grip of Montresor, which, in fact, is the point-of-view the narrator wishes us to undersand

THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At LENGTH I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled -- but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong (Poe, par. 1).

This cleverness, this premeditation, this silky slickness of finding Fortunato's weakness and exploiting it comes to the realization that Fortunato "prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine." It just so happens that the Carnival is in season, what better time to launch such a plot? This dramatic irony allows the audience to perceive something that Fortunato does not -- the relentless pursuit and planning that is occurring as Fortunato enjoys himself celebrating Carnival. Even the name Fortunato (the fortunate) is ironic, since he is anything but fortunate as the intended victim of murder. This theme of irony will present itself again and again, and is Poe's technique for allowing the reader to both follow the story from the murderer's point-of-view, since it is he who is narrating, and to distance oneself and feel the true horror of the approach of death. The web/trap is set when Montresor dangles a rare wine, Amontillado, in front of Fortunato, but is cynical enough about it that he toys with Fortunato's greed and avarice.