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Montresor's Point of View in The Cask of Amontillado

"During the 1970s, some scholars suggested that the silent auditor is a father confessor " (Davies). .
             Poe uses first person versus a third person narrative because it allows the reader to get lost in their minds, venturing in the inner thinking of their thoughts to unmask the reason for Montresor's sudden need to tell his confessor of his murderous past. The reader is made aware that his confession comes fifty years after the murder. "Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them " (194). This gives the reader an idea of Montresor's true age at the time he tells his listener of his sins. "For if Montresor has murdered Fortunato fifty years before,  he must now be some seventy to eighty years of age" (Thompson 13-14).  This opens up the point that Montresor confesses his sins because he knows that his life is close to an end if not already at the end. According to Elena Baraban, " Without questioning the interpretation of Montresor's narration as taking place at his deathbed; I would still ask if the fact of this belated confession gives us sufficient ground to assume that Montresor has suffered pangs of conscience for fifty years. " As the reader is given insight into the detailed description of Fortunato's embodiment, Montresor's confession of sin is not seen that of a guilty conscience, but that of a man that has an opportunity to brag about his past without having to face any sort of repercussion. As Montresor describes Fortunato's emotions as he bricks him in the depths of his crypt, the lack of a guilty conscience is evident: .
             I had scarcely laid the first tier of the masonry when I discovered that the intoxication of Fortunato had in a great measure worn off. The earliest indication that I had of this was a .
             low moaning cry from the depth of the recess. It was not the cry of a drunken man. There was a long and obstinate silence.


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