Identifying a narrator in a story is considered by many to be a vital part in deciphering the meaning of a piece of literature, and this proves no different in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” and Margaret Atwood’s “Lusus Naturae.” Both stories utilize a first-person perspective to convey their desired messages. Poe and Atwood’s choice of having the narrator be a main character in their stories influences the meaning readers derive from each piece.
The point of view presented by Poe in “The Cask of Amontillado” is with that of an unreliable narrator, Montresor. In the first line of the story Montresor confesses, “the thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge (Poe …show more content…
The narrator is a girl living with porphyria, which renders her a “freak of nature” (Atwood 263). Readers are immediately given a glimpse into what life was like for the girl as she reveals what her family would say about her, going so far as to call it a “curse” (Atwood 263). The only way readers can perceive how the family feels is through their dialogue which is heard through the narrator then later explained by only her rationalization. The narrator justifies her family’s decision to fake her death as it would allow her sister to be able to happily marry (Atwood 264). It is then disclosed that the narrators mother “cried as if I [the narrator] really had died,” and that her mother was “in the habit of hugging me [the narrator] and weeping” at one point after her faked death (Atwood 264-265). However, the narrator then states that her mother “resented” her, which contradicts her mother’s actions entirely (Atwood 265). The discrepancy between the mother’s actions and the way the narrator sees them shows how first-person narration only presents the narrators perspective. Readers never truly know how the girl’s family feels about her because they are only given the view the girl has. The girl’s narration effects the way readers see the final situation, where the narrator is planning to kill herself before the mob of villagers reaches her. It is noted by Atwood that the narrator sees her sister in