Owl Creek Bridge

In both stories, The Cask of Amontillado and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, there is a character who takes deadly actions for a greater good according to what he thought.   Montresor from The Cask of Amontillado, killed Fortunato, and Peyton Farquhar, from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, supposedly escaped execution.   To the readers, it may seem like nothing more than just dangerous actions that took place, but there is more depth in both protagonists’ actions that we can only see if we read between the lines. Both characters’ motivations have shaped the story into becoming both similar and different from one another.
In the Cask of Amontillado, Montresor’s fantastic life and family was taken away from him by Fortunato, the town’s most beloved superior man.   Because of Montresor’s loss, he had lost his enormous social stature. But unlike any other men, Montresor refused to accept being inferior to Fortunato and decided to take extreme actions to reclaim his life in a sense and take avenge of his family’s name. With his motivation, he didn’t just decide to kill Fortunato quickly.   He took his time to plan out his revenge perfectly. From gaining Fortunato’s trust, to the actual death, it was planned out carefully.   With all the irony that took place such as when Fortunato was coughing so much and said he wouldn’t die from a cough and Montresor said “True—true”, the shift in power became inevitable. “We will go back, your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was.   You are a man to be missed.   For me it is no matter.   We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible.” (Montresor, 5).   Fortunato’s faith was in Montresor’s hands.   All this time, Fortunato believed that he was smarter, superior, more deserving of the best, but in reality, Montresor had the upper hand.   Even before Fortunato became a corpse, Montresor was already becoming superior. Because every step they took deeper into the...