Character Analysis of Montresor Toy Phillips Itawamba Community College Character Analysis of Montresor Many, if not all, of the characters featured in Edgar Allan Poe’s writing have an overwhelming cunning paired with an inclination to be lethal. A few decide to face the punishment of the law rather than that of his or her conscience. The vast majority, however, do not. The protagonist of “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor, falls into the second category as he is a loyal and intelligent sociopath. Montresor is willing to kill for his family and is the quintessential Montresor. His family motto is “Nemo me impune lacessit” can be translated to “No one attacks me with impunity;” meaning Montresor must be crazy to kill Fortunato; however, White (1989) has a different view, …show more content…
Montresor follows his family crest well. He has been insulted by Fortunato, represented by the golden foot, and Montresor is the rampant snake biting the heel because he uses creative deception to murder the man who wronged him. Even as he commits a man to die by suffocation, Montresor continually conveys a significant intelligence. Before the murder is committed, Montresor is careful not to arouse the suspicion of his victim. Later, as he escorts Fortunato to the manor of the Montresors, Montresor demonstrates his mental prowess once again by manipulating his servants into being absent during his visit. Given all of the planning put in to the murder by Montresor, the final show of his intelligence is the lack of discovery. According to the information in the story, no one has discovered the body of Fortunato in fifty years (Poe,