Montresor's Greatest Fear (Long post)
I know that I had written an analysis post on him previously, but I wanted to talk about it again on a separate post with clearer details.
Before I come to a conclusive theory, I want to go over the interesting details.
It starts with him standing in a church, standing on the Belial sigil.
Fun fact, the term Belial was later referred to as simply the Devil in the New Testament and is used to often used to characterize 'worthlessness' or 'weakness'
This gets further interesting because his Spectre is the Son of Belial. This phrase in Hebrew translates to 'son of worthlessness' or better said 'people defined by worthlessness'. (Do fact check that and inform me if I'm wrong, I'm going off on vague memory and knowledge I had during a short phase)
Moving on, he sees a long line of cloaked figures up front, none that which he recognizes, all approaching him. These figures are covered in soot and grime.
One of them reaches out and touches his chest, insulting him to his face (mood). This touch burns him. They start to take turns, touching him and insulting him. And with each insult it burns him.
It's terrifying, it's clearly haunting him. He's rejecting the insults.
What's more baffling is that, once they touch him, the soot on their body is transferred to him. As seen in the second picture, the people who are walking off are now cleansed. He is burned and getting dirtier and dirtier.
I didn't understand this scene at first. It feels like a line he threw out of desperation, a thread to keep hanging on. Especially the part where he claims that they needed him.
But they are using him. It's as if he's being used to carry their sins - if they are gluttonous, they're making him the gluttonous one. If they are selfish, they're making him the selfish one. They made him wicked, stupid, worthless and he tries to reject it. He's trying to convince SOMEONE that he isn't any of those. Awfully intriguing, really.
It's similar to a sin-eater, my theory is that he was used as a scapegoat. Like a designated sinner? I am not well aware of such concepts to talk about them, but I think it is a similar theme being applied here.
So all of this happens, he becomes very close to a crash out, and then his 'mother' shows up.
At first glance it looks as though she's hugging him, but upon closer look at her hand placement you can see that one hand is touching him the exact same way that every hooded figure from before had. Palm right on his body as if prepared to call him out/insult him.
Montresor does calm down a lot once she appears, listening in silence as she continues to...completely insult him. She excludes him from their community, comparing him to them. She calls him faithless - going as far as to say he deserves all he has gotten.
What surprises me is that he refuses, he says "I'm not" as in "I'm not faithless", and "I didn't" as in, "I didn't deserve this".
It's surprising because Montresor is someone who seems to fully admit what he is, he is proud of it. He knows he's an asshole, he knows he's vengeful, he doesn't do much to hide it. And yes, this may be a coping mechanism for he who seem to have been called such things his whole life. But the refusal feels wholehearted, desperate even.
She forces him into his knees to pray (she has a devious smile while he's surprised) and as you can see ^ she forces his hands together and raises them in praying motion.
The next scene is one I think we'll understand one the actual flashback regarding this scene is unlocked. He is defiant, almost casual when he says he doesn't remember. It almost looks like a child throwing a tantrum.
See, I think he's lying when he says he has forgotten. Originally I had thought he didn't pray much or perhaps he stopped at some point and never prayed again. And these are legitimate theories and could even be proven true along the lines. But in his latest flashback we see he was a preacher before he became an outlaw. Not a good one, of course as he was shown gambling. It does sort of imply he at least worked in a church back then so not remembering how to pray would be difficult to do - especially for someone who is likely to have grown up in churches. Such places treat religion like a habit, and one thing about habits are that they are hard to forget.
Plus, in the latest chapter he was in (120) he is wearing a cross necklace underneath his uniform. For someone who seems to 'look down' on God this proves that he has at least some faith. Of course he may wear it as a source of comfort as well. Religion is a very complicated thing after all, I'm not going to make solid conclusions here.
Fun fact! Montresor means my treasure in French! Monty here might be American in the webtoon but in the short story he's actually French.
Anyway, this is the final burning. The mother grabs his throat as she says this and it seems to burn his insides causing him to puke the out the actual devil. An interesting theory here would be that this implies that mother is the worst sinner of them all, but either way, the scene freaked me out.
I can't tell you what she means by "you had the devil inside since the day you were born" as it is a common insult against horrible people. However if this means that he has been treated like devil itself since he was a young child then I think I will genuinely feel remorse for Montresor.
So the devil he pukes out, which I'm assuming is a depiction of Belial, begins to attack people around the church.
In the background it is the bible verse Matthew 6:9-13, the 21st Century King James version specifically. (Btw I'm not Christian so this was a bitch to find, I was just writing down key words I saw between the teared bg but I'm pretty sure this is the one)
In this manner, therefore pray ye: Our father who art in heaven , hallowed by Thy name
Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory forever.
I might make a separate post about this verse later if I have a revelation, mostly because I was too tired to delve into the meaning of it. At first read it seems like a prayer for God to redeem them of their sins though.
As this verse plays in the background, the devil is attacking people, and Montresor watches it all laughing. He seems satisfied, pleased to see the sight. It's as if he's watching someone finally revenge for him. My guy is loving it.
Also if you look at the picture of him laughing you would see the exact handprint of his mother's on his chest.
He's laughing, in his illusion, but in reality, he looks worse off than ever.
Montresor looks terrified here. I loved what Lenore said to him, pointing out how he's always scared. It made so much sense that I nearly pitied the guy.
Yes, if he really is scared of God or maybe the 'cult-like' behavior itself then every single thing he's done so far can be seen as an attempt to get away from that life. Every blasphemous action and unkempt behavior starts to seem as if he's desperate to not be seen as religious. He's nothing like them.
Or maybe it's the only way he knows how to be. Having been called the devil, depraved, horrible, those are the only words he knows how to fit into. So he needs to be like it, because if not then who even is he? He's scared of whatever that has been done to him, but it may also be the only thing he knows.
Either way, it scared him to such an extent and I am dying to know the full story there. Whether he's choosing to be horrible, or if he doesn't know how to be anything but horrible, or he's horrible because he's scared - I simply cannot wait to find out.
In his illusion he is watching the devil lash around, attacking the worshippers around him, while in reality he's lashing out going as far as to attack Will (who basically worships him omg)
Perhaps this means that even in the illusion, he's the devil and we're being tricked by seeing a subconscious part of himself enjoying the sight.
I feel like I should bring up that I don't even like Montresor. It's just that there's so much depth to him that I keep seeing whenever I'm doing mundane tasks that makes my mind wander.