Flaws In The Cask Of Amontillado

Flaws are an essential part of who people are and how they think. Flaws can’t be ignored and the best thing to do is understand what they are and embrace them. Narrators of stories are also flawed and inherently biased. No one can know and see everything, which leaves the reader without knowledge. A narrator’s flaws will flaw the perspective of the reader, leading to a less complete, or less understood story. Montresor, from “Cask of Amontillado”, is one example of a flawed narrator altering how the reader perceives the story. He claims that “The thousand injuries of Fortunato [he] had borne the best [he] could” (Poe 212). Montresor leaves out what exactly Fortunato has done. In doing this, he limits the reader’s perspective so that they cannot fully understand the story. Montresor is led on by
The narrator has a younger brother whom is disabled, Doodle. The narrator decides he wants to teach Doodle to walk and run. This is one of his major flaws. He has too much pride to have a brother that cannot do a lot of things. This ultimately leads to the narrator leaving Doodle for dead in a large storm. The narrator does not take Doodle into account for his plan. He only cares that “[He] was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk, so [he] set out to teach him” (Hurst 418). This is a very common flaw, and is one of the most dangerous. At the end of the story they are trying to outrun the storm and get back to their house. Doodle is running himself, and then falls. He calls out, “‘Brother, Brother, don't leave me! Don't leave me!’” (Hurst 425) but the narrator keeps on going, not wanting to give up on his brother. But it was a mistake. Doodle could not stay up himself, and lay there dying. Eventually the narrator gives up on his pride and comes back to help Doodle, only to find his corpse. The narrator’s pride was too much, and took the life of his