A Rose for Montressor?

Rapist, murders, serial killers, and other such individuals are not generally seen to be the role models in society. This is due to the ability that most humans have in order to distinguish right from wrong. Though frowned upon by society, many times these people repeat their actions, not because they are able to enjoy their actions, but rather mental disorders impair them from understanding how horrible and drastic their actions really are.

Such people are considered to be out of the norm for they are unable to understand and comply with the universal rules and laws that society has laid. These people who usually exhibit peculiar behavior patterns, such as being antisocial, violent, and paranoid can be classified as psychotic individuals. Such individuals can inherit these traits other genetically or simply copy the behaviors they witnessed as children. Despite not having control over their genes, nor past, they are liable for the actions they commit whether voluntary or not.

In the stories “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, both Montresor and Emily killed a man for reasons that are not specifically told by the authors. In both stories, the main characters can easily be classified as psychotic, from their disturbing behavior patterns and the actions committed by both individuals.

One would usually expect a prominent family in the South to have a large family, but this was not the case for Emily Grierson. The daughter of a wealthy Southern man, was controlled and manipulated all her life by her father, this not only would lead her to a life of eccentricity, but also to remain unmarried for her whole life. Though not well liked, “Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.” She would become one of the only things that linked them to the past, but not in a way that one would hope.

Miss Emily was not only looked upon awkwardly, but was also acted as a reminder of her “old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy”. Though her reputation was not exactly noteworthy, she was well recognized in the town, but not in a positive manner. Only till her father died, did the townspeople realize her insanity. Days after his death, Miss Emily continued “to that her father was not dead“ not recognize the death of her father, but refused to dispose of her father’s corpse, only to be rotting within the house.

Only after her father’s death did her psychopathy begin to reveal itself. As she began to involve herself with Homer Barron, she began becoming attached. After becoming attached to Homer, she would eventually come to poison him with arsenic, after realizing that “that he was not a marrying man”. This insanity can be assumed to have been the result of her father’s controlling behavior that was directed towards her for most of her life. For this reason, her attachment to Homer would lead to Emily’s desire to be by the side of the one she had loved so much, even after poisoning him to death. She even went as far as sleeping with the rotting corpse for several decades; only for the townspeople to notice “that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head” that had “a long strand of iron-gray hair” lying next to the corpse of Homer.

Practically no one would argue that such actions are not only immoral, but also only a psychotic individual would be able to commit such despicable actions. Still, her actions were products of her father’s repressive upbringing, making her socially inept, and eventually a reclusive elderly woman who sleeps with a corpse for several decades.

Unlike Miss Emily, Montresor seems to be more socially accepted than Miss Emily, due to his ability to communicate with others. Despite being more socially acceptable, he is still not normal, for he has a mind filled with cynicism, which leads him to do things that most people would consider to be horrid an immoral.

In Poe’s tale, Montresor avoids discussing a reason for wanting to kill Fortunato, conveying the idea that, either a very personal malicious act was inflicted upon Montresor or simply he does not have an adequate enough reason to justify his acts. Since Montresor was able to confess the entire incident to an individual several decades later and still could not tell of a reason, reveals that the wrongs done to him were of such insignificance that he would not even bother to mention. Even his words were filled with insanity along with vast amounts of anger, as he says “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity.”

Despite the lack of information as to what the “thousand injuries of Fortunato” where, Poe foreshadows his heinous acts by describing his family crest, "A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel" baring the motto