Death: The Great Antagonist in Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”

Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado” has been read as a story of a premeditated crime, of revenge and the protagonist’s ultimate pride in his well-executed crime. Readers are repulsed by the sheer evil of Montresor, the main character of the story. However, this paper argues that this reading barely scratches the surface of the depth and complexity of this story. It argues that the story is told in the form of a confession. The narrator, an elderly Montresor, is full of remorse, and in telling the story, he is seeking absolution. In its deeper meaning, “The Cask of Amontillado” is about death as the inescapable biological trap. This paper argues that the story is about death as the great antagonist of the text.