Montresor is the unreliable narrator, meaning that we only experience the story through his subjective point of view. It can be said that everyone is the hero of his or her own story, and we understand that Montresor believes he is justified in what he has done in walling up Fortunato.
However, rather than persuade us to be on his side, Montresor ends up horrifying us at what he does. The result is that we feel pity and sympathy for Fortunato. For example, Montresor is vague about what crime Fortunato has committed to deserve his fate. Montresor merely tells us he has suffered a thousand injuries and an insult from Fortunato. Could he really have suffered a "thousand" injuries? What were these? What insult could have been so terrible it warranted inflicting a slow death on his enemy?
Montresor also unwittingly builds our sympathy for Fortunato by describing him in his Mardi Gras cap with bells, mentioning his difficulties breathing in the moldy catacombs, showing him drunk on a party night, and revealing that he is utterly unsuspecting that Montresor will do anything more to him than offer a taste of wine. He does not fight Montresor or suddenly admit to having done Montresor some terrible wrong. We as readers end up as bewildered as Fortunato is when he is walled up. All these details reinforce our sense that Fortunato is the innocent victim of a madman who has blown a tiny incident into a reason for murder.
Friday, May 6, 2016
How did the unreliable narrator affect the short story "The Cask of Amontillado"? Give examples.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."
Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...
-
One way to support this thesis is to explain how these great men changed the world. Indeed, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was the quintes...
-
At the most basic level, thunderstorms and blizzards are specific weather phenomena that occur most frequently within particular seasonal cl...
-
x=4cost y=2sint First, take the derivative of x and y with respect to t. dx/dt=-4sint dy/dt=2cost Then, determine the first derivative dy/dx...
-
Ethno-nationalism is defined as "advocacy of or support for the political interests of a particular ethnic group, especially its nation...
-
Both boys are very charismatic and use their charisma to persuade others to follow them. The key difference of course is that Ralph uses his...
-
Find the indefinite integral $\displaystyle \int \sec^4 \left( \frac{x}{2} \right) dx$. Illustrate by graphing both the integrand and its an...
-
The most basic attitude difference between Mr. Otis and Lord Canterville is their attitude toward the ghost. The attitude difference start...
No comments:
Post a Comment