In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” the narrator’s surname is Montresor.
Montresor is a nobleman who tells the story of his carefully planned revenge against Fortunato, a man he claims has inflicted numerous injuries and an unspecified insult. During Carnival, Montresor lures the intoxicated Fortunato into the catacombs beneath his family home by promising him a taste of rare amontillado wine.
The name is sometimes confused with Fortunato, the victim, or Luchesi, a wine expert mentioned as a rival judge of the wine. Poe is the author, not the narrator: Montresor’s first-person account deliberately presents the crime through the murderer’s controlled and disturbing perspective.
Poe published the story in the November 1846 issue of “Godey’s Lady’s Book.” The narrator eventually walls Fortunato into a niche, and at the end reveals that fifty years have passed without anyone disturbing the body. Montresor’s family motto, “Nemo me impune lacessit,” reinforces the story’s theme of revenge and impunity.