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Can you name villains similar to Montresor in their characteristics?
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Villains similar to Montresor include those who justify their actions through a sense of vengeance, like the protagonist in Cornell Woolrich's The Bride Wore Black. This character shares Montresor's ruthlessness and determination but seeks revenge for her husband's death. Additionally, James Bond villains and Batman's Joker exhibit traits of intelligence, cunning, and mental disturbance, paralleling Montresor's deviousness and unreliable narration.
Because Edgar Allan Poe has Montresor narrate his own story in first person, the reader learns of the events strictly from his perspective. In this regard, it is a stretch to regard him as a villain. In his mind, he is entirely justified in avenging himself for Fortunato’s bad behavior—the “injuries” and “insult” to which he has subjected Montresor.
Looking to literature for other problematic protagonists who have justified their homicidal actions by vengeance, Cornel Woolrich’s classic 1940 noir novel The Bride Wore Black provides a good example. A strong similarity in this novel is the ruthlessness and fixity of purpose of a young woman who exacts revenge. Two differences are that she avenges her husband’s death rather than injuries on herself and that she kills numerous individuals rather than one.
The novel was first made into a film by François Truffaut in 1968; the English title was the same,...
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while the original French title wasLa Mariée était en noir. The subsequent cinematic interpretations gained further renown, as it was adapted by Quentin Tarantino into Kill Bill parts 1 and 2. In Part 2, Beatrix is buried alive.
References
You know, for some reason, what comes to mind is a series of James Bond villains, who are ferociously intelligent, agile and quick with their brains, but hideously unaware of their motivations and what drives them. For me, the key to Montresor's character is the fact that he is unaware of what drives him - he is an archetypal unreliable narrator in that we come to suspect his words when he talks about his anger and desire for revenge against Fortunato. Thus it would need to be a villain that shows themselves to be exceptionally devious in terms of their planning and quick thinking and use of their enemy's weaknesses against them, but also one that is mentally disturbed or challenged. Any James Bond villain will do - or you might want to think of a Batman villain such as the Joker or someone like that.