The Cask Of Amontillado Montresor Character Traits

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” Is how Edgar Allan Poe starts one of his, many, stories. “The Cask of Amontillado” by Poe is a very dark story. Montresor is our main character. The protagonist if you will. He’s dark, patient to a certain point and very unforgiving. In the story, Montresor is angry at Fortunato. So Montresor decides to get revenge. He dismisses the servants, of his house, so as not to interrupt his plan. He deceives and leads Fortunato down into his family catacombs. While this is happening, Fortunato is under the belief that he’s going down to get a cask of amontillado. When they get all the way down, and to the back of the room, Montresor chains him up and then walls him up inside. Burying him, down there, alive. Leaving him for dead. Yes, Montresor may be our main character, yet that doesn’t make what he does is right. Montresor is a very dark person; you can tell by

“And the motto?” “Nemo me impune lacessit.” (Poe 64) Here Fortunato is asking about Montresor’s family motto. He replies with “Nemo me impune lacessit” which means “No one attacks me with impunity”. If you break that down, it means no one hurts/attacks me and gets away with it. In a sense, he holds grudges when someone insults him in a way. He’s gone so long without retaliating, now he’s saying that he’s “getting back” at him. Montresor was somewhat patient, but now he’s snapped. “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” (Poe 61) Montresor put up with Fortunato for a long time. Montresor went “Thousand injuries,” before doing something about Fortunato. A thousand injuries is a lot to go through without doing anything. Most people wouldn't, probably, get to one hundred. But to suffer through a thousand injuries, and just now do something. It shows the amount of patience he