Revenge In Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado

Revenge is most likely the most disputable human concept to exist. While many consider it a crime to seek vengeance, others view it as rightfully restoring justice. It is not uncommon in literature for revenge to be a recurring idea, due to its controversial nature. Ray Bradbury’s “The Utterly Perfect Murder” follows the journey of a man named Doug to claim the life of a man who had tormented him in his childhood years. Similarly, the narrator of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor, seeks revenge on his friend Fortunato and eventually kills him. Doug and Montresor’s motives and mental state are very similar, yet the outcomes of the execution of their revenge differ greatly. Both narrators endured other minor pains brought

In the end, Doug does not end up literally murdering Ralph, but instead ends his inner turmoil when he sees Ralph, now a sickly man, after decades have went by. Standing on his porch, he says,“This, then, is the truth. This dreadful instant in time. Not to pull out the weapon. Not to kill. No, no. But simply-To see Ralph Underhill as he is in this hour. That’s all. Just to be here, stand here, and look at him as he has become”(Bradbury 24). He had initially loved him as a friend, but forced himself to tear away from Ralph once he realized that not only was this affection one-sided, but that Ralph was only bringing him pain. In this moment, as Bradbury emphasizes, Doug cannot kill Ralph, the husk of a person which he had become. Doug’s journey to seek revenge had nothing to do with killing Ralph. Instead, it was to free himself from the burden that Ralph brought upon him as a child. Doug did not need to kill him because he had already broken Ralph when he left him 36 years ago. Montresor, unlike Ralph, succeeds in what he had planned to do initially; to murder Fortunato. Once he has chained Fortunato up and built the wall, he “placed his hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied”(Poe 282). Montresor sees the results of his hard work, and is satisfied by finally punishing Fortunato for what he did. This is his closure, and unlike Ralph, Montresor’s revenge could not be resolved with fake murder. For both men, the belief was that if they killed the ones who had wronged them, they would be at peace with themselves. It is understood that whatever had occurred to them in the past which caused them to choose vengeance, cannot be undone. The murders which they choose to commit were a final and desperate attempt to balance out wrongdoings. This