Additional material and attachments

Montressor

Poe's the Cask of Amontillado

A Legal Brief against Montressor

In Poe's tale, Montressor does not necessarily convey the motives for killing Futunato directly; there is no mention of exactly what Futuanto did to Montressor to make him mad with revenge. However, the fact that revenge was the underlying motive could not be clearer in the story. Fortunato undoubtedly did much psychological harm to Montessor which is evident in the phrase mentioned when he refers to the "thousand injuries of Fortunato." Whatever the injuries actually were, it was these that lead the perpetrator to commit pre-meditated homicide. He believed that the injustices inflicted upon him were worthy of the ultimate revenge as states that "I must not only punish, but punish with impunity."

The actual crime was undoubtedly a vicious and well planned homicide. Motressor leads Fortunato down to the catacombs by playing to his ego and requesting his expertise and knowledge about fine wines. This strategy allowed Montressor to lead his victim down to the crime scene without any notice by others or any force needed to transport his victim. Once inside the cellar, Montressor chained Furtunato to the wall and sealed him into his death by enclosing him in bricks leaving him to die through dehydration and starvation.

The fate of Furtunato represents one of the most agonizing deaths imaginable. Being enclosed in pure darkness, the victim was left alone to die a slow and painful death. Furtunato must have also experienced a great deal of emotional and psychological pain before his body deteriorated to the point in which consciousness left him. Therefore, it was not only the physical deterioration that made Fortunato suffers, but the psychological impacts of the type of murder carried out were arguably as bad if not worse than anything that was done to the body. Such a slow, agonizing, and painful death illustrates the fact that Montressor spent much time planning the homicide and was obsessed with making the death as horrific as imaginably possible.

Since Montressor was undoubtedly guilty of first degree homicide, there is not any evidence that this man could make any legal argument against his guilt in the matter. However, given the fact that his was driven by madness and revenge, it is likely that he could plea temporary insanity. He was obviously insane by the facts of the case. He was obviously so obsessed with revenge that he completely lost control of his rational capacity. It was from this state of insanity that this crime was committed and hence he should be able to make a plea for a lesser sentence.