Edgar Allan Poe's short dark piece of literature, entitled "The Cask of Amontillado," provides the reader with a realistic understanding that taking revenge in the form of murdering someone may result in the feeling of guilt throughout the course of life and a deathbed confession.
Instead of taking revenge on a worthy enemy, Montresor acts like a coward. He lures Fortunato, who has consumed too much alcohol and is intoxicated into the dark horrifying vault full of corpses, where he is unable to defend himself. From Montresor's point of view, he feels it is his personal responsibility, as a member of a prosperous family to protect them from insult and injury. As Patrick White writes, "To do justice to Montresor, we should understand that he is not an individual person seeking redress for personal insult or injury but, rather, an agent of retribution action on behalf of his family" (par.2). Montresor was so proud of his family that when Fortunato insulted them it drove him mad, to the point where he lost his mind and planned Fortunato's death. As proof of how much Montresor worships his family, Poe allows his character Montresor to say, "The Montresors, I replied, were a great and numerous family"(1669). Indeed, Montresor's method for killing Fortunato was cruel because he bricked the drunken man into a niche in the wall and allowed him to suffocate.
On his deathbed, Montresor confesses his sin of murdering Fortunato to a Catholic Priest, because his conscience has been haunting him for over fifty years. At this point, Montresor is trying to obtain the priest's blessing for an internal cleansing, and for the hope that his soul will have the opportunity to rest in peace. As John Gruesser writes, " Fortunato literally and figuratively gets the last laugh in the tale because he knows what lies ahead for Montresor and himself in the next world" (par. 1). Unfortunately, confessing to murder may not be the only factor in determining whether Montresor goes to heaven.
