Obsessed, or just plain crazy?

"I must not only punish but punish with impunity." When Montresor, the narrator of Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, says this, you know by the end of this short story that he means it. Despite this, one does not necessarily see him as a trustworthy narrator. While he is trustworthy enough to do what he says he is going to do, the reasons he feels he must punish Fortunato are never really that clear. In fact, he never actually mentions specific wrongs that Fortunato has committed. All he ever says about that is that Fortunato wronged him. Due to the lack of detail on that score and his seemingly blind hate for Fortunato, he seems a very untrustworthy narrator.

In this story, Montresor's hate seems to be very blind and excessive. At one point, though we get a hint at one possiblity of why he hates Fortunato so much, but it is just a hint, nothing substantial. He says, " 'The Montresors,' I replied, 'were a great and numerous family.' " This implies a certain fall from grace as he says "were" instead of are. This could imply that Fortunato had a role in that, however again, we have no evidence, and Montresor never provides any, meaning that it could just as easily have been some little thing that Montresor percieved as a great wrong. Afterall, Fortunato treats him as a friend, and is very shocked at what Montresor does at the end.

Also, we must consider the possiblity that Montresor is more than a little crazy. Afterall, it is not enough for him to punish Fortunato, but he must entomb him alive in a damp dungeon like cellar. He also says that he must do it with impunity, because getting caught would defeat the purpose of doing it. This man has planned this all out, which only someone with something seriously wrong with them would actually consider. At the end he says, "In pace requiscat!" which means may he rest in peace. In essence, he has just sentenced this man to a horrible death and says may he rest in peace. In my opinion this shows a great deal of mental instability. For these reasons I think that Montresor is only trustworthy when he is talking about what he did, but not when he is talking about why.