1. Motivation
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I
best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who
so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave
utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point
definitely settled--but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved, precluded
the idea of risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity.
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.
2. Manipulation
"As you are engaged, I am
on my way to Luchesi. If any one has a critical turn, it is he. He
will tell me--" "Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry." "And
yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your own." "Come,
let us go."
"Let us go,
nevertheless. The cold is merely nothing. Amontillado! You have been
imposed upon. And as for Luchresi, he cannot distinguish Sherry from
Amontillado."
I had told them that I should
not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir
from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their
immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned.
3. Ironies
and wordplays revealing the Narrator¡¯s cruel nature
"I drink," he said,
"to the buried that repose around us."
"And I to your long
life."
"I forget your
arms." "A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a
serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel." "And the
motto?" "Nemo me impune lacessit." ¡°Good!" he said. The
wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled. My own fancy grew warm
with the Medoc.
4. Irony
in a little bickering concerning Freemason
"You are not of the
masons." "Yes, yes," I said; "yes, yes." "You?
Impossible! A mason?" "A mason," I replied. "A
sign," he said, "a sign." "It is this," I answered,
producing a trowel from beneath the folds of my roquelaire.
5. The
Narrator¡¯s deceptive self-justification
"Pass your hand," I
said, "over the wall; you cannot help feeling the nitre. Indeed, it
is very damp. Once more let me implore you to return. No?
Then I must positively leave you. But I must first render you all the
little attentions in my power."
6. The
Narrator¡¯s vindictive nature expressed without irony
The wall was now nearly upon a
level with my breast. I again paused, and holding the flambeaux over the
mason-work, threw a few feeble rays upon the figure within. A succession of
loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form,
seemed to thrust me violently back. For a brief moment I hesitated--I
trembled. Unsheathing my rapier, I began to grope with it about the
recess; but the thought of an instant reassured me. I placed my hand upon
the solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied. I reapproached the
wall; I replied to the yells of him who clamoured. I re-echoed--I
aided--I surpassed them in volume and in strength. I did this, and the
clamourer grew still.
7. Ending without Poetic Justice
For the half of a century no mortal has
disturbed them. In pace requiescat!