seeking to
entomb his enemy alive--the same theme, precisely, as Balzac had used
earlier in "La Grande Breteche," and Edith Wharton in later years in
"The Duchess at Prayer." In "The Cask of Amontillado," Montresor
desires to be revenged upon Fortunato because the latter has both
injured and insulted him. Exactly how he has been insulted we are not
told; nor do we know the extent of his "injuries." It is sufficient
for the purpose of the story that we know that his Latin blood has
been roused sufficiently to make him eager to compass the death of his
enemy--who is none the less his enemy although, up till the very
moment when Fortunato realizes the awful fate that is to be his, he
(Montresor) pretends friendship for his victim. After Montresor's
revenge has been accomplished by walling up Fortunato in a
subterranean vault, the perpetrator feels no remorse. He has completed
what he set out to do, and is satisfied. He has "punished with
impunity" and he has made the fact that he is the redresser felt by
"him who has done the wrong."

What chiefly impresses the reader is the lack of motive for
Montresor's crime--for crime it surely is, whatever his real or
fancied wrongs--other than the motive of a madman. At the conclusion
our sympathy for the unfortunate victim of Montresor's hate is
perhaps as great as is our pity for Montresor himself.

But note that Doyle's story is not only an original piece of
fiction--as we have just interpreted that expression--but also one in
which we recognize that the seeker after revenge is thoroughly
deserving of our sympathy, even though we do not entirely approve of
his bringing about the death of even so unworthy a creature as we know
his enemy to be. In Doyle's story, as in Poe's, the background is
Italy, but Italy of the present day, so we feel that we understand the
motives of the characters better because they are of our own time.
There is a definite and grievous wrong committed against the young
woman with whom the central character is in love, therefore the wrong
is committed indirectly against the lover himself. We are made to
realize the despicable nature, the utter heartlessness, of the young
woman's betrayer, and we actually _hate_ him as soon as the facts are
made clear to us. We realize how great has been the love for her
cherished by the man who finally punishes the one who has wronged her,
by causing him to be entombed alive in a Roman catacomb which he
himself has but rec