A Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask Of Amontillado Essay Example

scene and murder style, we see how grim the mankind can be when they feel offended psychologically.

In the story, we're not able to find any specific sign proving Montresor's being insane. However, from the symbols, narrating style and the bitter end, it's not hard to label the protagonist as a mad person. "Unable to find a logical explanation of Montresor's hatred for Fortunato, most commentators conclude that Montresor is insane. Such interpretation, however, seems to make certain details in the elaborate structure of the story unnecessary and this, in turn, goes against Poe's approach to composition. "? rightly states Baraban. In addition, the dialogues including foxy implications help reader making guesses about Montresor's inner man.

For instance, when Fortunado asks The Montressors' motto Montresor replies him, "Nemo me impune lacessit" or in translation, "Nobody provokes me without punishment" and with using that expression he reflects his intention in an almost friendly manner. These signals indicates about his insane and untrustworthy nature. It's nearly clear that the protagonist is insane. Besides, psychological occurances have many types and the Montresor's mental illness has the characteristics of obsession. This obsession's degree is so high that it drives him killing the one who insults upon him with a quite extreme method and without hesitation - except from the session in the end that he feels worried for a moment when he becomes aware of the thing he has done.

Obsession has the same kinds of motivation argued by criminals in any terrene crime (envy, revenge, prejudice, sadism). In the highest degree of obsession, the person does some actions unconciously to his/her victim during the crisis of mind. After the job is

done, he/she doesn't remember anything or remembers it with great regret?. The readers watch the portrait of old Montresor confessing his action after half of a century. This confession also indicates his regret although many years passed after the terrible murder.

His regret is related to his obsession of getting revenge without punishment that nobody but him punishes himself by making him remember the event throughout his life. These obsessions making Montresor avenger and insane also creates a theme of the story as "sense of rightfullness" which refers to get the honour back with revenge by putting the violence second place and the reason first place. Moreover, as Levent Mete suggests on the basis of Erich Fromm's thesis, it's the weak one's way out and this sense of revenge is the opposite of productivity? In this short story, with the main character's actions, Poe's deep signs show us that this story is more than a horror and murder story when the stones are placed in.

References

1. http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/The_cask_of_amontillado -
2. Baraban, Elena V. "The Motive for Murder in 'The Cask of Amontillado' by Edgar Allan Poe. " collected in Rocky Mountain E-Review of Language and Literature. Volume 58, Number 2. Fall 2004.  http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Obsession_%28Spiritism%29 ? http://www. afl. org. tr/mezun/e_bulten/2005/temmuz/leventmete.htm