Clearly a central theme that goes to the very heart of
this excellent short story is that of revenge. From the very first paragraph it is clear
that revenge is Montresor's central motive for acting in the way that he
does:
The
thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon
insult, I vowed
revenge.
Although the exact
nature of this "insult" is never divulged, revenge is the driving force that leads
Montresor to plot and enact his most gruesome of punishments. Consider Montresor's
motto, "Nemo me impune lacessit", which means "Nobody attacks me without punishment",
which adds a moment of black humour to the story as Fortunato responds to the firmness
of this motto with a strong approbation: '"Good!" he said.' Of course, the first
paragraph is key to the reader in terms of displaying Montresor's plan, which is an
enactment of his motto:
A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes
its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as
such to him who has done the
wrong.
It is vital therefore
to Montresor that Fortunato meets his fate at his hand - Fortunato must know that it is
Montresor who is exacting the revenge himself, otherwise, by Montresor's definition, it
would not be revenge.
Of course, the fact that the short
story never makes it clear precisely what the grevious offence was that plagues
Montresor so does beg the question of whether Montresor is entirely reliable - of
course, if Fortunato had wronged Montresor so badly it would be unlikely that he would
trust Fortunato enough to follow him by himself into the depths of his family
catacombs.
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