confess to his crime 50 years later. As the "avenger", Montresor also feels he fails to make Fortunato realize that he is exacting revenge upon him, as shown by his frustration when Fortunato believes that the situation he is in now is a joke on Montresor's account. Fortunato, instead of begging for help and forgiveness, as Montresor wanted, laughed! "A low laugh that erected the hairs upon my head. It was succeeded by a sad voice, which I had difficulty in recognizing as that of the noble Fortunato.". Noble Fortunato? Even after all the infractions he suffered to his person, and all the pains he took in seeking and executing revenge, he refers to Fortunato as noble? This is clearly his guilty and riddled conscience speaking. One can also hypothesize that Fortunato did realize what the reality of the situation was, and cheated Montresor from the satisfaction of his success by leaving him in a lurch as to whether he did the right thing. What ever the case may be, Montresor unfortunately never realized the true revenge that he had hoped he would exact on his enemy Fortunato. Revenge, although executed exactly as Montresor planned, still eluded him by falling short of his own expectations. Physically, Montresor had won this match, but Fortunato had ultimately taken away the sweetness of this victory that Montresor so eagerly yearned. ...
