creates the portrait of a man obsessed. As a first-person narrator, Montresor aims to get the
reader he directly addresses on his side by stating that this reader knows "the nature of
my soul." This implies as well that he assumes the addressee will know at least some of
what constitute the "thousand injuries" that Fortunato has inflicted on him. Montresor
does not state, and perhaps believes that the reader already knows, what the territory of
"insult" is into which Fortunato has crossed.
We never learn
exactly what tipped Montresor over the edge from resentment to premeditated murder. While we do
learn by the end that he achieved his goal of revenge, he phrases his intentions as reactions to
the other man's offenses. The end result must be complete destruction:
"immolation."
By leaving the exact "wrong" unstated, Poe
encourages his reader to think of insults they have born and thus to empathize with the wronged
man, rather than simply judge him as a cold-blooded killer.
No comments:
Post a Comment