Montresor Character Analysis Essay Sample

Manipulative, pain, and betrayal, these three ingredients made the perfect villain, but the author added a secret ingredient to the concoction, deception. And there our villain Montresor is born seeking revenge on clueless Fortunato. Although the story of “The cask of Amontillado '' doesn't clearly state Montressor’s reasoning, through his actions we can clearly see that he seeks revenge on Fortunato.  During the story Montressor makes some questionable and manipulative decisions to execute his well planned murder from using reverse psychology on his servants to deceiving Fortunato to appease his vengeful desires.

During the course of the story Montressor takes out his revenge on Fortunato by taking some continuous measures to carry out his murder. Such as how he told his servants to leave knowing they would depart and not return as it says here, “I had told the servants that they must not leave the palace, [...] This, I knew, was enough to make it certain that they would all leave as soon as my back was turned.”.  Not only that he had deceived Fortunato in thinking he would be testing the accuracy of the wine (Amontillado)  Montressor claimed he had. while also targeting Fortunato´s arrogant personality by mentioning another wine expert (Luchresi), saying quote on quote, “[...]was just going to talk to Luchresi. If anyone understands wines it is Luchresi. He will tell me…”, this seems to be said in a manipulative way to persuade Fortunato since he himself is a well known wine expert. Montressor deceives many all in the hopes of curing his cunning cravings to lead him to his end goal.

As we can see from Montressor’s cunning actions we can obviously tell his motives all point to his vengeful desire to get back at Fortunato. He states his motives are all due to Fortunato’s careless and hubristic actions, stating that in the past, “FORTUNATO HAD HURT ME  A thousand times and I had suffered quietly. [...] But then I learned that he had laughed at my proud name”. Montressor’s character traits and actions influence the theme of revenge greatly as he is the perfect villain with the perfect plan. He goes to extreme lengths to reach his goal.

In conclusion Montressor’s villanese actions make him a deceitful and vengeful character who will do anything to get what he wants. He will deceive and manipulate anyone who gets in his way. He convinces those around him to follow in his lead which shows his true actions to bury Fortunato in the end. Montressor is a beautifully characterized villain who uses psychological strategies to succeed. Hence why his actions and character itself is so important to the theme of revenge.