The psychoanalytic lens is a literary criticism approach that focuses on the psychological and emotional aspects of a character's behavior and their unconscious motivations. Through the use of the psychoanalytic lens, you're able to better understand the characters’ motives, through Freudian beliefs such as the id and the superego, which give insight into the characters' actions. It also helps readers understand the deep-seated desires and fears that shape Montresor's actions. The psychoanalytic lens reveals that Montresor's actions in "The Cask of Amontillado" stem from his repressed desire for revenge. This would explain why Montresor doesn’t really have any feelings of guilt since he believes subconsciously that getting revenge justifies his actions. Montresor's ancestors were wronged by Fortunato's ancestors, and Montresor believes that he must avenge their honor. However, he cannot openly seek revenge because of social conventions. Instead, he subconsciously uses the carnival season as a cover-up to execute his plan. Montressor uses revenge to subconsciously justify his actions, to cover up any future feelings of guilt. …show more content…
Montressor’s mind is filled with thoughts powered by his id and this little to no interference by his ego and superego. When Montressor is laying the bricks on page 6 he says “The noise lasted for several minutes, during which, that I might hearken to it with the more satisfaction.” This quote shows that Montressor doesn’t feel any grief or feel as if he is doing anything wrong at all for that matter, he is simply just filled with the satisfaction of casting revenge upon Fortunato. When analyzing The Cask of Amontillado using Freud’s theory readers are able to get a much deeper understanding of the complex characters of the