The author wants the reader to feel empathy, or at least understand him. He says: “You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat.” The author talks extremely negative towards Fortunato. This suggests he is trying to persuade us to feel the same way. When he says that he did him wrong it clearly shows how evil his plan is. So the reader throughout the story actually believes that Fortunato is bad. It's only until we get to the vault scene that you realize maybe Montressor is just psychotic
