Revenge is the deliberate act of inflicting injury in Revenge also is the ghost that haunts oneman’s soul for almost fifty years in Edgar Allen Poe’s “TheCask of Amontillado.” Is vengeance really satisfied byMontersor in Poe’s tale? No, not only is it not satisfied,but also ironically he damns himself for all eternity!At the beginning Montersor gives us his two criteriafor revenge: “A wrong” he says “is unredressed whenretribution overtakes its redresser. It is equallyunredresse[d] when the avenger fails to make himselffelt as such to him who has done the wrong.”(Harris 335)Are these two criteria met? “No retribution seems to overtake Montresor” (Harris 335). But, that is just how itseems. From the onset of the story “... the narrator[Montresor] suffers from a guilty conscience...” (Gruesser1), which means that Montersor did suffer. Poe also makes noindication that Montersor ever told Fortunato why he isexecuting this “motiveless evil”(Harris 335). Therefore,neither of Montresor’s requirements of vengeance areaccounted for. In reality Montersor permits himself to betransformed from family avenger into a cold-blooded murder.“He [Montresor] count[s] on God’s judgment as the finalinstrument of his revenge. He kill[s] his enemy by leadinghim into sins of pride, vanity and drunkenness” (Cooney195). Here Montersor fails also. When Fortunato poses a lastprayer for mercy to his murderer and his God, “’For the loveGod, Montersor!’ ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘for the love of God’”(Poe153). “To this, Montersor [is] deaf and when the prayerreceive[s] a merciful hearing in heaven, Montersor’sstratagems backfire[s]. Fortunato, lucky as his namesuggests [is] saved; Montersor damned”(Cooney 196). This isreiterated by Gruesser when he writes “...going through withthe murder, Monte...
