Character Analysis Prewrite and Draft

Amy Woolston
Professor Hueners
ENG 210
7 February 2007
Malignant Montresor:
A Carnival Internment
Two ways to express the idea that justice will inevitably be realized are “an eye for an eye,” and “what goes around, comes around”, directly or indirectly. One may actually state in a fit of rage, “I was so angry I could have killed him!” However, the element of self-control and reason eventually overrides the anger and lawful problem-solving skills step in to replace irrational behavior. A story that guides that reader through the steps of committing a murder presents a scenario wrought with curiosity, then mystery, and finally, horror. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” the main character and narrator of the story describes a murder he committed and attempts to rationalize a gruesome crime by gaining the compassion of the reader.

Physically: I read him as an old man, yet in the story of the murder incident he describes he is probably around 25/30 years of age. Though there is no physical description of him, I can pull from his pain that he probably has a solemn expression on his face. He is probably well dressed and puts a “smile” on his face when he comes face-to-face with his secret enemy, Fortunato.
“It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much.” Montresor is still out and about in life, engaging in the parties of the time.

Intellectually: I see him as educated, as one can see through his use of text and colorful descriptions. He may have been just as bright as his peers and just had some "bum-luck"...but he is intelligent enough to rationalize and plot a murder...and crazy enough to follow through...which leads to ...
“In this respect I did not differ from him materially;-I was skillful in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could.”

Emotionally: he is consumed with his grief over lost chances and poor luck. Assuming that one person is responsible for his misfortune, he allows the idea of revenge or "redress" to be an actual option. That is clearly a form of unrest. Also, the idea that if he redresses the misdeeds against him that there will be an equality of destiny...his warped idea of "what goes around, comes around" perhaps. Montresor uses words like “immolation”, “impunity” and “gesticulation” to impress the reader perhaps, to sell the point that he surely has a right to carry out his own justice. Vengeance! Vigilante!
“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.”
“A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redressor.”

Socially: Montresor is limited, if only by his feelings of inferiority of some lost dreams and vanished success. He may be serious upon approach and distrusting of others. He is injured and may portray this out in his every day life by passive behavior and a general lack of trust for anyone/anything. However, he is wealthy enough to maintain his family home and have staff to care for it; this indeed is a sign of some financial security.
“”The Montresors,” I replied, “were a great and numerous family.”
“A huge foot d’or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.”
(Perhaps Fortunato to Montresor!)

Philosophically: Montresor is corrupt. He is filled with contempt, unreasonable as it may be, and he directs all his pain towards one man..., which surely and statistically cannot be the sole blame for his discontent. He thinks if he can gain the compassion of those he addresses far after the fact of the crime then he can win their sanction of the gruesome deed he had committed. He has lost sight of moral boundaries; he has allowed hate to eat his heart, and actually puts energy into taking another's life...how sordid.
“”Come,” I said, with decision, “we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter.””
Montresor is lying by saying he is concerned for Fortunato’s health, and he suggests that he is happy no more…and that maybe he can massage his victim’s ego to ease the trap of murder. He gives clues, yet he is mischevious.














Works Cited
Booth, Alison, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York, W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2006. 106-113.
Poe, Edgar Allen. The Cask of Amontillado. Literature.org. 23 May 2005. 7 February 2007 http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/amontillado.html