"I could only conceive this singular behavior to arise from a consummate self-conceit assuming the vulgar airs of patronage and protection.
...
As it was, I at length grew restive in the extreme under his distasteful supervision, and daily resented more and more openly what I considered his intolerable arrogance."
Annabel being controlling over Montresor is always a fascinating sight to watch lowkey.
Because it's like one on hand why do you bother Annabel I promise you he's not worth the effort. Youâve given him like at least three chances already atp & he keeps fucking them up. just kill him Annabel plz kill him plz plz plz Annabel I promise you it's so so much easier to just kill him we all want to see it. But also on the other hand, why would you think this would work on him. Like yes manage the violent & impulsive person with a natural distain for authority by repeatedly establishing to him your authority. Did Lenore teach you nothing.
Been thinking about this recently. About their dynamic in general. I donât think Iâve ever realized how integral the harm Annabel suffered & internalized (as a women from her specific era of patriarchal society) is fundamentally baked into the premise of their interactions in canon until I imagined it without. The tension of which is largely built on a loss in their lives that informed their relationship with agency & power. A loss I donât even think theyâre consciously aware theyâre seeking retribution of from the other.
Just finished reading The Picture of Dorien Gray & can I just say idk if Annabel Lee Nevermore subscribes to queer theory in doppelgänger literature but the tenuous mental correlations are frying my sleep deprived brain rn.
Montresor, about William Wilson after the events of 120: Queenie this shit is freaking me the fuck out the hell am I supposed to do.
Annabel, the most serious she's ever been: Have you tried stabbing him to death.
So much for someone who hates being touched without permission.
DO YOU KNOW WHO ELSE HATES BEING TOUCHED BUT DOESN'T HAVE THE SLIGHTEST IDEA ABOUT PERSONAL SPACE
(maybe it's because both of them hardly had people in their lives who respect their boundaries so they have nowhere to learn to respect others' but shhhhh)
Lenada AU concept : Young new maid for hire at the Vandernacht mansion instructed to tend for depressed locked up madwomen in abandoned attic. Neither are happy about this development. The first meeting is absolutely disastrous.
Predictions for Montresorâs (and Willâs kind of) arc post-120
Okay!! So first I should say that this theory is actually based on another one, which I believe has become somewhat popular. The theory is that Montresor takes the role of the narrator in William Wilson, and Will takes the role of the double. I have a lot of reasons why I believe this (lmk if you want a full explanation and compilation of evidence) but some examples are: similar personalities, childhoods, relationships with peers, status as outcasts/outlaws (both are professional gamblers on the run), experiences with isolation, psychological horror related to a double, and of course relationship to said double (ie. Will acting as a conscience/guardian angel [looking at you Will with wings panel] and being ignored/rejected paralleling the doubleâs relationship with the narrator). With all these similarities both plot and theme-wise between Montresor and the narrator, I bet (that if the theory is true) we can use it to predict what will happen!
Iâm going to fully explain my predictions/thoughts below, but I donât want this to be too long so Iâll put it under âread moreâ. To summarize: theyâre so, so doomed.
In the episodes following Will and Montyâs arrival at the Arboretum, we can see their relationship has irrevocably changed. Montresor is clearly terrified, traumatized, and grieving. Will seemingly cannot remember what happened and is bound for one hell of an existential crisis. But what I want to point out is Montresorâs specific reaction: heâs lashing out and rejecting this version of Will. Any attempt to connect is met with firm rebuttal, and even violence. He can barely bring himself to look at Will. Heâs haunted, and his best friendâs ghost wonât leave him alone.
In these panels from 137 we see not only Montresorâs violent rejection of Willâs affection (because he is so so scared). But also the distinct way heâs talking about Will. He immediately goes to tell Annabel about what happened, he refers to Will only as âhimâ or whatever he was going to say before he was cut-off. From what weâve seen he never once uses Willâs name. That isnât Will to him, thatâs a wax double, a thing wearing his only friendâs face. And nobody sees it, nobody understands the wrongness of the thing before them. That isnât a person. That isnât Will. Something ainât right about it. [personally, I ascribe to the âevery version is equally Will/dividing a chunk of wax theory when it comes to Willâs humanity/personhood but honestly I have no idea]
The point is, Monty is haunted. He is absolutely isolated in his suffering. And in denying his chance to speak on this [though, side bar, I completely understand Prosperoâs crash out, he has no idea about this, Montresorâs past, etc he only has Montyâs behavior in public, in Nevermore to go off of] they have created a time bomb.
The narrator in William Wilson, pursued to the ends of the earth by his double who advises him with such horrid affection and interferes with his will, is much the same. As he became more obsessed with the double, he becomes more and more hostile. Determined to bend this one thing that will not do as he says (much like Will, who albeit unintentionally routinely interferes and disobeys Montyâs orders, such as continuing to try to appease him when Monty told him to âquit lickinâ [his] bootsâ). The relationship devolves turning what once was a close bond, a friendship where they were attached at the hip, sour.
I think Monty and Willâs relationship will follow a similar trajectory over season 2. I think Montresor will continue to lash out at what he views as a cheap imitation of Will, and escalate his already toxic behaviors in their relationship further. But it wonât help, wonât make him feel more in control, wonât make the others listen to him. So he becomes more desperate, unraveling further as his grief consumes him and he desperately tries to figure out what was real, and what to do. Battling with his own feelings, and ultimately I think it will end in tragedy, as most gothic romances do.
At the end of William Wilson, we finally get the context for the beginning. We learn that after years of being pursued by his double, having his entire life unravel as he spirals, the narrator snapped. He led his double to a side room at a masquerade, challenged him to a duel, and stabbed him repeatedly with a sword.
who do we know that has a sword? (Well, large knife)
So yeah, I think after a season or more of psychological horror, and the evolution of the worldâs worst situationship (and one of my favorites), Montresor will snap, and make up his mind to kill Will. Finally ending his torment and putting to rest the ghost of his dead friend (by killing him). It would act as a true tragedy, completely preventable yet out of control, maybe if things were different it couldâve worked, but they always would have made those choices. The candle metaphor: while the fire needs the wick and the wax to sustain it, in the end it still destroys it. The candle melts no matter what.
That leads me to this official art (which Iâm totally not including just because I love it so much)
This illustration serves as a microcosm of their entire relationship. While Monty seems to understand he is destroying Will, he cannot bring himself to push him away, thus he dooms one of the few people he has truly connected with. He knows what is happening but cannot stop it, and Will isnât letting go. He should, but he isnât. Because for a second heâs warm, heâs alive, heâs content to hold Montyâto be at his sideâeven if it kills him. Their relationship is a tragedy of two people who match each other in many of the worse ways, hand picked to torment the other and yet even worse, they really do care for each other. The love was there, it didnât save them and in fact it was their doom, but the messy, unhealthy love was there. But it wasnât enough, because love does not make a relationship healthy. It does not make it good, you work to make it and keep it healthy. Their relationship, if Iâm correct will spell doom for them both.
Now, how exactly is Monty doomed you may ask? Well, the flame cannot continue to burn without the candle, it dies out. But to put it in more concrete terms, we can look at the beginning of William Wilson. The narrator tells us of his descent into evil, the strange circumstances which led him here, to this moment where he has crossed the point of no return. To where he has no hope, no sympathy from his fellow man. Killing Will would break Montresor, it would mean fully stepping into the role of the devil, bringing him to a point where he (most likely) really does care for nothing and nobody. It is theorized that the double in William Wilson may represent the conscience, and in killing his the narrator has utterly doomed himself, so much that he may as well have taken his own life. The death spiral reaches terminal velocity. I donât know if Montresor would die after killing Will, but I think he would have lost a key part of himself.
âYou have conquered, and I yield. Yet henceforward art thou also dead -- dead to the world and its hopes. In me didst thou exist -- and, in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast murdered thyself.â (âWilliam Wilsonâ, Edgar Allan Poe)
so yeah, I think Willtresor is doomed, and Iâm here for every heart-wrenching, complicated, homo-erotic, truly gothic (in the literary sense) moment of it!! They truly are such characters :]
Iâd love to hear what yall think, and any theories you might have. I also want to shout out Eva, and (probably, itâs very murky) one of the first to propose this theory. Iâve loved it since the beginning. And!! Lmk if youâd like to see a compilation of those similarities/parallels between Monty and the narrator I brought up in the introduction. Thanks for reading!
What if we took a guy whose inspiration character murdered a friend that pissed him off too much. & paired him with a guy whose inspiration character repeatedly followed his friend around until said friend got too pissed off & murdered him, thus killing them both.
"You know, I realize you aren't capable of caring about anything or anyone in the same way the rest of us do."
âProspero at Montresor, chapter 137
big words from someone who is buddy buddy with Annabel Lee "everyone can and will be manipulated for my own gain" Whitlock, local tea enjoyer, blackmailer, and kicker of bloodied and barely conscious individuals; who has not shown even an OUNCE of remorse for anything she has done ever in front of you including moments where she has purposefully thrown you under the bus, twice!
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