Edgar Allan Poe, the Cask of Amontilldo, Montresor

Montresor, the main character in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” dramatizes three of his characteristics through the story’; vengeful, single-minded, and unforgiving. We know from the very beginning of the story that he is intent on exacting revenge for the “injuries” and “insults” of Fortunato, and that he is patient, willing to wait “at length” for an opportunity to arise to allow him to achieve his end. He does not once waver in his plan to murder Fortunato, hesitating only once as he is bricking up the recess in which Fortunato is chained; and even then he hesitates not out of indecision, but out of fear that Fortunato has escaped his bindings. And consider the Montresor family motto:Nemo me impune lacessit—“no one attacks me with impunity.” Here we have confirmation that the man is vengeful, and learn that this vengeance is rooted in his family’s values and history. The man is proud—he comes, after all, from “a great and numerous family,” with a reputation that he is burdened with upholding.Given Montresor’s unerring performance in tricking Fortunato into his cellar and his chosen method of murdering his “friend,” we can confidently say that Montresor is a creative man, and clever. His tactics involve a good amount of knowledge about his acquaintances—he knows that Fortunato, a “quack” in many ways, is a genuine connoisseur of wine, and that he believes Luchresi to be “an ignoramus” who “cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry.” Montresor plays off of Fortunato’s own biases and pride to lure him deeper and deeper into his trap, until there is