THE CASK OF

AMONTILLADO
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
 EDGAR ALLAN POE
• (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)
• He was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known
for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and
the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism
in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was
one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. He is
generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is
further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science
fiction.
 THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

• Mood- the feeling or atmosphere that a writer conveys with

his or her words.
• Atmosphere:
• Carnival- "supreme madness", fall, sun setting
• Basement/Catacomb- dirty, cold, mysterious
 SUMMARY

• The narrator, Montresor, opens the story by stating that

he has been irreparably insulted by his acquaintance,
Fortunato, and that he seeks revenge. He wants to exact
this revenge, however, in a measured way, without
placing himself at risk. He decided to use Fortunato’s
fondness for wine against him.
• During the carnival season, Montresor approached Fortunato.
He told Fortunato that he had acquired something that could
pass for Amontillado, a light Spanish sherry. Fortunato was
wearing a cone cap with bells. Montresor told Fortunato that
if he was too busy, he will ask a man named Luchresi to taste
it. Fortunato claimed that Luchresi could not tell Amontillado
from other types of sherry. He was anxious to taste the wine
and to determine for Montresor whether or not it is truly
Amontillado. Fortunato insisted that they go to Montresor’s
vaults.
• Montresor has strategically planned for this meeting by sending his
servants away to the carnival. The two men descend into the damp
vaults, which were covered with nitre. Apparently aggravated by the
nitre, Fortunato began to cough. Montresor kept on offering to bring
Fortunato back home, but Fortunato refuses. Instead, he accepted the
wine as the antidote to his cough. The men continued to explore the
deep vaults, which were full of the dead bodies of the Montresor family.
In response to the crypts, Fortunato claimed to have forgotten
Montresor’s family coat of arms and motto. Montresor responded that
his family shield portrays “a huge human foot d’or, in a field azure; the
foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.”
The motto, in Latin, is “nemo me impune lacessit,” that is, “no one
attacks me with impunity.”
• Later in their journey, Fortunato made a hand movement that is a secret
sign of the Masons, an exclusive fraternal organization. Montresor did
not recognized this hand signal, though he claimed that he was a
Mason. When Fortunato asked for proof, Montresor showed him his
trowel, the implication being that Montresor is an actual stonemason.
Fortunato said that he must be jesting, and the two men continue
onward. The men walk into a crypt, where human bones decorated
three of the four walls. The bones from the fourth wall have been
thrown down on the ground. On the exposed wall was a small recess,
where Montresor tells Fortunato that the Amontillado is being stored.
Fortunato, that was heavily intoxicated, went to the back of the recess.
Montresor then suddenly chains the slow-footed Fortunato to a stone.
• Taunting Fortunato with an offer to leave, Montresor began to wall up
the entrance to this small crypt, thereby trapping Fortunato inside.
Fortunato screamed confusedly as Montresor was building the first
layer of the wall. The alcohol started to wear off and Fortunato moans,
terrified and helpless. As the layers continued to rise, Fortunato falls
silent. Just as Montresor was about to finish, Fortunato laughs as if
Montresor is playing a joke on him, but Montresor was not joking.
• At last, after a final plea, “For the love of God, Montresor!” Fortunato
stopped answering Montresor, who then twice called out his enemy’s
name. After no response, Montresor claimed that his heart fell sick
because of the dampness of the catacombs. He fits the last stone into
place and plasters the wall closed, his actions accompanied only by
the jingling of Fortunato’s bells. He finally repositioned the bones on
the fourth wall. For fifty years, he writes, no one has disturbed them. He
concludes with a Latin phrase meaning “May he rest in peace.”
 CHARACTERS
Montresor Fortunato

• Vengeful • Prideful
• Prideful • Gullible
• Unreliable • Alcoholic
• Manipulative • Insensitive
 SETTING
Carnival Catacomb

• A time for parties, feast and • Underground cemetery

costumes
• Perfect setting for Montresor and
Fortunato to leave unnoticed.
• The carnival represents a
celebration for freedom.
• Perfect setting for Montresor to
murder Fortunato.
• Represents the opposite of freedom and
Fortunatos’s fate.
 SYMBOLISM
Symbolism of revenge
• Nemo me impune lacessit=
no one provokes me with
impunity
• Fortunato is the serpent
biting on Montresor’s heel.
Symbol of death
• Cask= a barrel like
container to store
beverages. Root word in
casket.
• Spanish verb
“amontinallar” means
collected in a pile or
gathered in amount.
 IRONY
• Fortunato’s name: his name means fortunate one in Italian, but he is
anything but unfortunate when he was buried alive.
• Fortunato’s costume: Fortunato dons the motley-colored costume of the
court fool, who gets literally and tragically fooled by Montresor’s
masked motives. The color schemes here represent the irony of
Fortunato’s death sentence.
• Montresor referring to Fortunato as “my friend”.
• The two men’s underground travels are a metaphor for their trip to hell.
• In the catacombs, the characters drink to a “long life”.
 ANALYSIS

• The terror of “The Cask of Amontillado”, resides in the lack of

evidence that accompanies Montresor’s claims to Fortunato’s “thousand
injuries” and “insult.” The story features revenge and secret murder as
a way to avoid using legal channels for retribution. Law is nowhere on
Montresor’s—or Poe’s—vision/world, and the enduring horror of the
story is the fact of punishment without proof or actions without
consequences. Montresor uses his subjective experience of Fortunato’s
insult to name himself judge, jury, and executioner in this tale, which
makes him an unreliable narrator.
• Montresor confesses this story fifty years after its occurrence which
overrides the rational consideration of evidence that would necessarily
precede any guilty sentence. “The Cask of Amontillado” takes
subjective interpretation. Different people interpret the same things
differently.