Zaroff and Montresor, though from different time periods, share similar backgrounds. Both the men were very wealthy as well as respected in society. Zaroff was a blatantly rich man. He lived in an enormous chateau on his own private island and ate off the best china, using the best silverware. He wore clothes made by a tailor that only sewed for the elite, proof of his wealth and a glimpse of his position in society. On page 5, it says, “Ivan laid out an evening suit, and Rainsford, as he put it on, noticed that it came from a London tailor who ordinarily cut and sewed for none below the rank of a duke.” Zaroff also used to be a part of the military, revealed on page 7, when he refers to himself as an “officer of the Czar”. For him, this is …show more content…
Their present lives were alike as well. Montresor and Zaroff were both murderers and can be labelled as mentally unstable. Montresor was a vengeful man who was so caught up on the ‘thousand times he’d been hurt’ by Fortunato, he discarded the value of a human life. With no feelings of remorse or guilt, he murdered his friend. He believed his vindictive actions were justified and felt that he had a right to revenge. On page 71, he says, “A short chain was hanging from one of these and a lock from the other. Before Fortunato could guess what was happening, I closed the lock and chained him tightly to the wall.” He let Fortunato rot in the catacombs and that turned him into a killer. Zaroff, on the other hand was just plain cruel. He murdered a countless number of people for his own amusement. He saw no value in a human life and found those that did to be old fashioned, as it says on page 8. “I refuse to believe that so modern and civilized a young man as you seem to be harbour romantic ideas about the value of human life.” Zaroff found no interest in hunting animals because they didn’t pose as much of a threat as he wished for. Instead, he found amusement and interest in hunting humans. He felt a sense of accomplishment when he managed to end the life of a human. While Zaroff and Montresor were both cold-blooded killers, Zaroff genuinely believed human lives were equal to those of animals and had no value