Is Murder Justifiable? The Question for Poe

It is never justifiable to take the law into one's own hands, even though there are times when the thought or action of doing so can be understood by others. For example, when someone molests a child, the public can certainly understand why the parent of that child would take the law into his/her hand, even though it is legally wrong. Or when someone shoots someone's parent, we again understand why that child would want to take the law into his/her own hands. These are typically crimes of passion or crimes that develop from emotion, completely unpremeditated. Even though these acts are still legally and morally wrong, the acts that caused these were wrong as well. Maybe that is why the situation is understood a little bit better. The problem with this theory in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" is that the reader knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Fortunato did not commit a wrong of epic proportions against Montressor. Montressor instead is criminally deviant; he may be acting against a perceived wrong, but his plan is much too methodical and his heart much too cold for anyone to agree with his acts.

First of all, Fortunato does not even know that he has done anything wrong. The story begins with "The thousand injuries of Fortunato, I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge" (Poe 1). This statement makes the reader have some sympathy for Montressor but when he gets to "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," the reader rightfully gets a little scared. The reader realizes that whatever wrongs Fortunato has done Montressor, Fortunato is not aware of them. He willfully follows Montressor to the catacombs. Yes, he is drunk, but not incoherent. He knows what he is doing, and Montressor knows just how to play on his ego enough to get him to go. However, Fortunato would not go if he were in mortal danger. How bad can the "thousand injuries" of Fortunato be if even Fortunato is unaware that he performed them? Obviously the two have not spoken about these injuries or tried to work them out in any other way. "It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile NOW was at the thought of his immolation" (Poe 1). That leads the reader to believe that Montressor is making too much out of the injuries and that there is certainly some criminally deviant behavior.

This certainly is not a crime of passion, which would be about the only case where taking the law into one's own hands is even remotely understood, although still not justifiable. Montressor plots this murder out to the last detail. He uses reverse psychology to get his servants to take off for the night. "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" (Poe 2). He chooses the night of Carnival when he knows Fortunato will be out and about and drinking. He also chooses a night where there are throngs of people everyone, so if someone disappears from the festivities, nobody will notice. He teases the unknowing Fortunato by drinking to his long life, telling him he will not die of cough, and the whole conversation about the double meaning of the word mason. When the get to the niche that will be Fortunato's home for eternity, Montressor displaces a pile of bones to get his tools." Throwing them aside, I soon uncovered a quantity of building stone and mortar. With these materials and with the aid of my trowel, I began vigorously to wall up the entrance of the niche" (Poe 4).

Every last detail of this crime is premeditated and planned by a criminally deviant mind. Montressor really does plan and execute the perfect crime, and this is proven by the fact that he tells the reader his story fifty years after the fact. It is not a crime of passion; it is a deliberate crime planned and executed by a criminal deviant.

Lastly, the reader cannot justify this crime by the coldness that Montressor has in his heart. He is so deliberate, almost like a machine while carrying this out. However, he does take a sick kind of pleasure in the banter that goes on between them. The previously mentioned conversations such as the one about the mason or where he tells Fortunato he will not die of cough show how much he really enjoys executing this crime. He even tells Fortunato of the family motto and crest, which certainly foreshadow Fortunato's death. At the very end when Fortunato is screaming of out of fear, Montressor only calmly screams back at him to intensify his fear. "I replied to the yells of him who clamoured. I reechoed -- I aided -- I surpassed them in volume and in strength. I did this, and the clamourer grew still" (Poe 5). The coldness and deviance in his heart is unsurpassed, and this crime could never be justified.

One cannot justify crimes outside the legal system if one wants the legal system to function the way it should. And if there are things wrong with the legal system, the answers do not lie in skirting the system. However, as a human being, there are crimes that at least can be understood. As humans, we are able to understand the sense of loss and grief that might push another person to commit such a crime; however, this is not one of those cases. The wrongs that Fortunato did could not have been that terrible, if Fortunato himself had no idea that he committed them. The murder was perfectly executed down to the minutest detail by Montressor. It is was not a crime of passion or emotion; it was a cold-blooded kill. This kind of crime can never be justified by rational people in our society. Montressor found way too much pleasure in this crime for the reader to even remotely understand his point of view. He is a social deviant who has planned and executed the perfect crime.

Poe, Edgar Allan, "The Cask of Amontillado," Literature.Org The Online Literature Library, Retrieved April 19, 2007 at http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/amontillado.html