When someone who feels they have been so insulted, that there is no other recourse but revenge. In "The Cask of Amontillado" Montresor is going to get just that. In this story by Edgar Allen Poe he tells the tale of an individual obsessed with revenge and the irony of the man who was unable to see the doom that he was walking straight toward. Edgar Allen Poe's use of theme of revenge and irony including the language he uses help the reader understand the relationship of the two men. While Poe doesn't include all details of what has happened in the past he is able to create a fantastic story keeping readers holding on until the chilling end.
In the first line we learn that Fortunato is the character that has tormented our narrator for some time. "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge" (Poe 1) we know that this character has put up with countless acts from his tormentor, but Fortunato has crossed a line. You never do find out what it was that pushed Montresor over the edge. Not knowing exactly inspires the reader to speculate countless images and scenarios of what transpired and it adds to the overall creepiness of the story, I personally think that Fortunato insulted Montresor's family heritage or place in its current times. .
While leading Fortunato into his family's catacombs, Fortunato comments on the extent of its size to Montresor's reply "The Montresors were a great and numerous family" (Poe 2). Can we believe that the Montresor name is not what it once stood for? If it were it would make sense when Montresor says "I must not only punish but punish with impunity" (Poe 3), Meaning that his punishment in his eyes would be completed without consequence. Also his family motto "Nemo me impune lacessit", which translates to "No one will attack me with impunity".
