hout impunity is Montresor’s criteria for success, he is not successful. Not only does he feel bits of remorse throughout his deed, he develops compassion for his victim and is tormented by his conscience. He follows that statement with "A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes it's redresser. It is equally unredressed, when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong" (153). Ironically, Montresor is obsessed with revenge, but fails to ever tell Fortunato why he is killing him. Also, Montresor plays on Fortunato's naivete, but it is Montresor who is naive in thinking that he can act on the inner need for revenge without consequence. The names Fortunato and Montresor are the epitome of the symbolism / irony web. Fortunato means fortune and Montresor mean treasure; they are synonyms. They are symbols for Montresor's outer self and his hidden inner self that is fighting to surface, but the irony is that neither is fortunate.Through symbolism Poe shows that it is Montresor's inner evil that strives for revenge, and Montresor's outer self strives to subdue those urges. By burying Fortunato alive, Montresor kills the one who, in his mind, represents those evils. The irony is that by killing, Montresor has also killed the humanity of both his inner and outer self. As Montresor tells this story it becomes obvious that harmony can not be restored once a primal act has been acted on, and conscience makes it impossible to commit a crime without consequence. If one's subconscious self is obsessed with an evil, the conscious must overcome it or a paradox will result in which both selves parish. ...
