Edwah Naveed September 18, 2017

The Cask of Amontillado

In the short story “The cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe contains an unreliable narrator. The narrator
isn’t very trustworthy as he portrays irony, exaggeration and doubtfulness throughout the story. Montresor is an
unreliable narrator as he overemphasizes multiple things throughout the story. The narrator states “The thousand
injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge (18)”. Montresor
was stating the insults worse than they could have been, as he couldn’t really be insulted a thousand times. Another
reason to why Montresor is an undependable narrator is as he is very ironic. Montresor tends to be ironic several
times throughout the short story. Fortunato states “the cough is mere nothing; it shall not kill me. I shall not die of
a cough”, Montresor replies “true—true” (19). The narrator portrays irony as he signifies the opposite of what he
says. In this case Montresor had replied to Fortunato saying “true—true” as he knew that a cough wouldn’t be the
cause of Fortunato’s death but how his perfect revenge would. The final reason to why the story contains an
untrustworthy narrator is because Montresor is very indecisive. The narrator is doubtful of his final decision as he
stated, “my heart grew sick on the account of catacombs” (22). Montresor tried to pull off his uncertain self, he
seemed very weak and doubtful about his revenge towards Fortunato. In conclusion, the narrator of “The cask of
Amontillado” is an unreliable as he possesses irony, doubtfulness and exaggeration.