The Cask Of Amontillado Analysis Essay
Tam Le
Mrs. Mota - 1
Pre-DP English
13 December 2015 Cask of Amontillado Analysis
In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Poe engages the reader by using point of view to emphasize the untrustworthiness of Montresor's, the narrator’s, character. For example, when Montresor had described how Fortunato had inflicted him with “[a] thousand injuries” and “ventured upon insult”, “[Montresor] vowed revenge” (1). This is the moment when the reader first experiences his unreliability as a narrator. Montresor had never specified the copious wounds that he had supposedly suffered from Fortunato and the severity of his offense. Furthermore, when Montresor had voiced out that Fortunato had ventured, in order words proceed with knowledge of risks, he had let bias trickle into his words. Us, the readers do not know whether or not Fortunato had intentionally insulted Montresor with malicious intentions, but in Montresor’s phrasing of words, it implies that he did indeed intended to do so. This not only makes the reader question the extent of exaggeration that Montresor inserts into his statements, but the reliability of the narrator as the story progresses. In addition, after Montresor had successfully, albeit reluctantly, finishes burying Fortunato in the alcove, he remarks: “My heart grew sick—on account of the dampness of the catacombs” (9). Here, one can see that Montresor had almost a moment in which he had felt guilt, yet had been quick to disregard it to the scenery. The dash indicated that Montresor added the latter portion onto his thoughts as more of an afterthought, rather than a …show more content…
Crepted down vaults: “Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead […] bones had been thrown down and lay promiscuously upon the earth […]” (6)
“We had passed through long walls of piled skeletons, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs.”
Mrs. Mota - 1
Pre-DP English
13 December 2015 Cask of Amontillado Analysis
In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Poe engages the reader by using point of view to emphasize the untrustworthiness of Montresor's, the narrator’s, character. For example, when Montresor had described how Fortunato had inflicted him with “[a] thousand injuries” and “ventured upon insult”, “[Montresor] vowed revenge” (1). This is the moment when the reader first experiences his unreliability as a narrator. Montresor had never specified the copious wounds that he had supposedly suffered from Fortunato and the severity of his offense. Furthermore, when Montresor had voiced out that Fortunato had ventured, in order words proceed with knowledge of risks, he had let bias trickle into his words. Us, the readers do not know whether or not Fortunato had intentionally insulted Montresor with malicious intentions, but in Montresor’s phrasing of words, it implies that he did indeed intended to do so. This not only makes the reader question the extent of exaggeration that Montresor inserts into his statements, but the reliability of the narrator as the story progresses. In addition, after Montresor had successfully, albeit reluctantly, finishes burying Fortunato in the alcove, he remarks: “My heart grew sick—on account of the dampness of the catacombs” (9). Here, one can see that Montresor had almost a moment in which he had felt guilt, yet had been quick to disregard it to the scenery. The dash indicated that Montresor added the latter portion onto his thoughts as more of an afterthought, rather than a …show more content…
Crepted down vaults: “Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead […] bones had been thrown down and lay promiscuously upon the earth […]” (6)
“We had passed through long walls of piled skeletons, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs.”