Obsession and Deviance Poe presents the narrators of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado" as devious, obsessed characters. Both are overpowered by the need to consume the life of their victim. Though they use different strategies to carry out the murders in different ways, obsession is the driving force in both. It is this obsession that inspires them to design these cunning strategies and carry out the executions. The obsession of Montresor in "The Cask of Amontillado" and of the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" is obvious throughout the stories. The narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart"