Montresor's Mental Illness As Highlighted In Edgar Allan Poe's Short Story The Cask Of Amontillado,

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” This is the line that opens up Edgar Allen Poe’s “short story”, The Cask of Amontillado. It shows the audience what the story is about, which is a conflict amongst the two main characters Montresor and Fortunato. Edgar Allen Poe does not inform us exactly what occurred between Fortunato and Montresor to make Montresor want revenge, but we could make the infer that it was one thing quite bad. We also do not know what Montresor indicates when he says that he wants revenge. We’d soon find out later in the story that Montresor’s revenge meants that he would capture Fortunato and lock him in a catacomb so he could not escape and then murdering his old friend. Why would Montresor do such a issue? What brought on Montresor to just snap and murder his buddy Fortunato? I believe that Montresor must’ve had some sort of mental illness that would push him to the point of murder.

The very first mental illness that comes to thoughts when thinking of men and women who have murdered is schizophrenia. The definition of schizophrenia according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “A extremely critical mental illness in which an individual can not think or behave generally and often experiences delusions.” Many infamous serial killers more than the years, such as Ed Gein, Richard Chase and David Gonzalez. Some of the major symptoms of schizophrenia are disorganized and compulsive behavior, aggression and anger, anxiety, paranoia and the belief that an ordinary occasion has unique and individual meaning. It is shown that Montresor has several of these symptoms in the story, specially aggression and the belief that an ordinary even has a individual meaning. This could mean that Fortunato did some thing small to anger Montresor, and because he possibly has schizophrenia, that could have led Montresor to believe that murdering Fortunato was the only valid option. Men and women who suffer from schizophrenia are recognized to harm and murder other individuals, so suggesting that Montresor is suffering from such an illness is entirely valid.

Yet another feasible illness that Montresor could possibly be suffering from is bipolar disorder. According to WebMD, bipolar disorder is a mental illness that brings extreme high and low mood swings and produces modifications in sleeping patterns, energy, pondering and behavior. Those final two could go hand in hand with Montresor, as his behavior and thinking in this story is horrendous. The following quote is thought of by Montresor in the story. “I continued, as was my in to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my to smile now was at the believed of his immolation” (Poe). This shows how Montresor was considering that night. He was thinking of Fortunato’s death whilst smiling and speaking to the man. This can effortlessly be signs of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

The final possible illness that Montresor could have is antisocial personality disorder, also knowns as APD. Antisocial personality disorder is a mental illness that is ideal recognized for becoming the reason most serial killers do what they do. Infamous serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Robert Black both had APD. The definition of antisocial character disorder, according to MedlinePlus, is “A mental situation which a individual has a extended-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of other people.” This definition completely describes Montresor. His behavior can be described as criminal behavior, as he perfectly plans his plots to murder Fortunato. Montresor has devilish behavior in The Cask of Amontillado. Montresor could most undoubtedly contain the mental illness of antisocial personality disorder, as he matches all of the symptoms of the illness.

In conclusion, the character of Montresor in the “short story” The Cask of Amontillado may very properly have the mental illnesses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or antisocial character disorder. He murders his old buddy Fortunato all more than something presumably little that occurred among the two. His devilish behavior in the story as he lures his friend into the underground catacombs and brutally murders him is scary to imagine taking place. It seems that every little thing Montresor does in this story is something only a serial killer with a severe mental illness can even think about performing. Edgar Allen Poe created this maniacal character so well in The Cask of Amontillado. You can just inform by reading the first handful of paragraphs that Montresor is evil, especially when murdering his old ‘friend’ Fortunato comes into play.