What Is The Similarities Between The Cask Of Amontillado And Montresor

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Personality is one of the most important traits that humans possess. All people are equipped with a personality that has grown with them since birth. Personalities are years in the making, and unique to each individual. This poses a creative roadblock to both artists and authors. How can artists and authors create such elaborate personalities in their work that make it seem like their subjects have been developing a personality for a lifetime? This isn’t an easy task to accomplish, however, Edgar Allen Poe’s Montresor found in The Cask of Amontillado, and Camille Joseph Etienne Roqueplan’s portrait of Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Chartres, found ways to incorporate complex personalities into both of their works. An author’s job in relation …show more content…
Right off the bat Montresor says he will exact revenge on a man named Fortunato. Revenge can be an easily accepted idea, however this quote shows that Montresor wants to watch Fortunato burn. This statement reveals an obsessive and sociopathic behavior, due to the fact that Montresor plans to continue his friendliness towards Fortunato, to his disdain, and then when the time is right, murder him. Montresor plans out the entire plot beforehand, with actions such as tricking his servants into leaving their duties, preying on Fortunato’s passion in wine and equal love of getting drunk, and readying a tomb for Fortunato. Montresor doesn’t exact these plans just because he’s crazy. He does so because of a compilation of events that have seemed to push Montresor to the tipping point. Montresor says “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 111), and “‘The Montresor’s,’ I replied, ‘were a great and numerous family” (Poe 113). First, Montresor shows he is not committing his actions without reason, Montresor wants to kill Fortunato because Fortunato has wronged him. This shows that Montresor is not necessarily …show more content…
Authors and artists both use an interpreter’s imagination combined with educational guesses to convey their subject’s personalities. For instance, Poe purposefully leaves Fortunato’s acts against Montresor ambiguous, as to force an interpreter to think what may have caused Montresor’s actions. The same goes for Roqueplan’s portrait of the Duke of Chartres, showing him standing tall and contrasted to all objects around him, sparking thought in an interpreter’s mind to acknowledge some form of previous action that led the Duke to this position shown in the portrait. Authors and artists also use their subject’s emotions to show personality. In The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor states his emotions towards his nemesis Fortunato, giving an interpreter information into Montresor’s personality. The presence of emotion to convey personality traits are also apart of Roqueplan’s portrait of the Duke of Chartres, casting the Duke as an emotionally sound being in contrast to the emotions seen on both the soldier’s and horse’s face. In the case of Poe’s Montresor and Roqueplan’s interpretation of the Duke of Chartres, there is little similarity in the sense of personalities. Montresor is shown as a weak and sociopathic individual by plotting the death of a man who didn’t even acknowledge any

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