Essay

When looked at for the first time, Montresor in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” may seem disturbing.   Montresor has plans to murder a man, Fortunato, for insulting him and plans on doing so by walling him up in the catacombs under his home.   Montresor devises a clever plan that will leave Fortunato clueless as to what his intensions really are.   Upon a closer look, Montresor’s character is admirable.   Montresor carries out his plan successfully without being caught.     Montresor is Poe’s most admirable character in “Cask” because he is patient, extremely confident, and very calculated.
Montresor is admirable because throughout the story, he is very patient.   In the beginning of the story, Montessori tells of how he will get his revenge on Fortunato over time.   He says: “At length I would be avenged…” (Poe 60). What Montresor means by saying this is that he will wait as long as he has to, to punish Fortunato in retaliation for the thousand injuries that Fortunato had caused him. Through all of the time that he waits to enforce his plan upon the unsuspecting Fortunato, Montresor smiles at Fortunato when he sees him.   This smile is not one of friendship, but a smile of happiness at the thought of Fortunato’s death.   Montresor does not approach Fortunato in efforts to persuade him to fall into the trap that he has set for him.   He wants to make himself feel when he has completed his revenge, and to do this he has to wait for the moment when Fortunato feels comfortable going with him to a place out of the sight of by passers.   Montresor waits and finally finds his moment: “during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend” (Poe 60). By Montresor having enough patients to wait as long as he did for an occasion to come up where all the townspeople will be distracted and drunk, it will finally pay off for him. He has waited long enough and now is the time.
Poe’s Montresor is admirable because he is also incredibly confident.... [continues]

Read full essay