rse or uncertainty for his actions, but rather a smug satisfaction that justice has been served.The first person perspective allows the audience only to learn basic information about the antagonist, Fortunato, and results in a very skewed perspective on the conflict of man versus man. The conflict centers around the pride and honor of two men, and the lengths that one of the men will go to in order to defend his honor to the other. Fortunato is portrayed as a conceited and arrogant man whose weaknesses are enhanced by the fact that he has had too much to drink. The conflict between the two men is somewhat one-sided because it is probable that Fortunato was ignorant of the fact that a serious conflict existed between himself and Montresor until the very end of his life. What one man likely viewed as a friendly rivalry, the other took as a justification for murder. This story has an absence of the man versus self conflict which is generally found in a first person story because the narrator, Montresor, is completely certain of himself and never has an inner conflict doubting his actions. The dark and eerie tone of the murder story and its unusual setting contribute to the story’s theme of defense of one’s honor and avenging wrongdoing. The haughtiness and conceited attitudes of the two men create an extension of this theme in which Poe wants to show how far some men will go when they receive a blow to the ego. The story’s setting in the wine catacombs beneath Montresor’s house symbolizes the materialism that fuels the rivalry between the two men. The vaults are dark, damp, and musty, and this setting enhances the dramatic effect that the story has on the reader. The unusual and eerie location of the story has the effect of distorting the reader’s sense of reality, which helps the reader relate better with the narrator and protagonist of the story. The story’s tone gives it a somber, dark, a...
