The Cask of Amontillado
It is hard to judge, from a reader’s point of view, if the narrator is telling the truth or not. If a story is narrated, we have no other perspectives but of the narrator. Although it is difficult to weigh one side heavier than the other, there are context clues that could lead us to decide the level of the narrator’s trustworthiness. In “The Cask of Amontillado” the narrator Montresor exposes bits and pieces of his personality and traits that lead us to discover his level of trust.
To begin with, it was never revealed to us what Fortunato did in the first place to offend him. We as the readers do not know what drove Montresor’s motives: to satisfy his nature by getting revenge of killing Fortunato. This allows us to conlude that Montresor is a mysterious man, for all we know he might have been offended by a small comment that Fortunato made. Throughout the story, Montresor continues to mock Fortunato by insisting that he fetch Luchresi to distinguish the difference between Amontillado and Sherry. This only urges Fortunato to tag along even more because of his pride of expertise with wines; this was exactly what Montresor wanted. The text “my smile now was at the thought of his immolation” reveals to us that he is not afraid of showing the real reason behind his smile. He has no reason to lie to his readers, for we can do nothing about it. Montresor maps out his plan well with the luring of Fortunato with wine, the taunting of Fortunato’s talent, the orders for the attendants to stay home because of his absence, and the setting where he will suffocate his victim. Towards the end, Montresor confessed that Fortunato’s low laugh erected the hairs upon his head. He admitted that it was a little bit creepy when his friend was able to let out a laugh even at his own death.
Montresor in some ways are trustworthy. He may not be a trustworthy friend or master because of the brilliant bribes that he was able to come up with, but he was certain of the feelings he had toward Fortunato and the actions that he made. He wasn’t embarrassed to show his Achilles’ heel to us: he gets offended easily. He showed us his true colors by letting us in on his account to kill Fortunato. Therefore, I find Fortunato trustworthy at some levels as a narrator.
Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Cask of Amontillado”