How Is Montresor Justified In Killing Fortunato

The Act of Revenge In Edgar Allan Poe 's "A Cask of Amontillado" the readers learns of a man who seeks vengeance on an acquaintance, named Fortunato, who irreparably insulted him. "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge." (391) for some unexplained injustice. Montresor wants revenge for Forunato 's wrongdoing, but he does not want to be punished for what he will do to Fortunato. Montresor 's desire causes him to thoroughly plan for his former friend 's murder, but he is sensible and desires that his deeds will not damage him or his reputation. This is mainly because Montresor believes he is fully justified in killing Fortunato for his insults and thus should not be
punished for what he believes is doing the right thing.Though relatively straightforward about how he is playing to do this contributes greatly to his atmosphere of horror, as Poe’s causes the reader to anticipate and be absorbed in the unfolding action.
.Montresor informs the reader that he first encounters, with revenge on his mind, it is “about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season.”(392) Montresor mention of “dusk” implies the sense darkness and the added suggestion that is the season of “supreme madness” introduces at atmosphere of horror and uncertainty planted into the reader’s mind.
The sense of darkness recurs as Montresor proceeds to describe the indoor setting to which he leads his friend. In the Vaults where he eventually entraps Fortunato, the hour is late and the light is “feeble” (395). Not surprisingly Montresos mentions that it is “midnight” when he puts the finish touches on his victim. By setting the narrative at a time of day of year of darkness Poe causes readers to suspect that something terrible is about to happen. To build suspense in story, Peo often employs foreshadowing, WHen Fortunato says,” I shall not die of a cough,” Montresor replies, “Ture,” because he knows that Fortunato will in fact die from dehydration and starvation in the
vault.
Just as the time in which “The Cask of Amontillado” is set to infuse the story with the atmosphere of dread, so the physical surrounds of the plot unfolds.
This atmosphere of menace increases in intensity as Montresor describes his descent with Fortunato into the vaults. There they walked through underground chambers where the “buried…repose around” (394) them, past “long walls of piled skeletons. These descriptions of physical setting turn the atmosphere of foreboding into true horror. The characters costumes and names play a major role of setting the theme. We find that Fortunato is ironically named. Fortunato, closely resembling the word fortunate, actually ends up being very unfortunate in the story. He is manipulated by Montresor and gets buried alive. Fortunato wears a jest costume as well, full with the cap and bells. This provides early signs that Fortunato is going the fool of the stoty .Yet Peo saves one detail of setting which shocks his readers. For it is only in the final line of the story that the readers learn the entombment of Fortunato occurred 50 years prior to Montressor’s narration of the story. For 50 years, the reader realizes, the deed has been a secret, and Fortunato’s body has yet to be discovered. And is it this realization that what has been described took place half a century ago that creates in the reader sense of horror because it has being so long and so successfully concealed. In this way, setting of “The Cask of Amontillado” functions to
increase the reader’s sense of horror.

Work Cited

Poe, Edgar A. “The Cask of Amontillado” by X.J Kennedy, Dana Gioia