Cask of Amontillado” (Part III)
Read the short story, “Cask of Amontillado” (text attached).

Then write a 3-page reaction paper

Key Points of ‘The Cask of Amontillado’

• A story of revenge.
• A man kills his rival by walling him up (entombed alive) in the catacombs of a palazzo (mansion).
• Montresor feels that Fortunato is a fool and therefore Poe dresses him in a court jester’s or fool’s garb, complete with striped outfit and cap and bells.
• Montresor makes sure Fortunato has drunk a lot of wine because if Fortunato is drunk, he will be delayed and slowed making it easier for Montresor to perform his revenge without much complication.
• Montresor mentions his family coat of arms: a golden foot in a blue background crushing a snake whose fangs are embedded in the foot’s heel, with the motto Nemo me impunelacessit (“No one insults me with impunity”).
• 5 Literary Terms:
o Conflict – The narrator Montresor has been offended by Fortunato and must have his revenge.Montresor does not want to be caught or punished for what he will do, so he must conceive of a plan that will allow him to “punish with impunity.”The first paragraph establishes the conflict.
o Foreshadowing – Poe reveals that Fortunato has a weakness for wine, and this will play a major part in Montresor’s plan.
o Irony – is filled throughout the story:
? Fortunato’s name means fortunate or lucky in Italian. This is ironic language play, as he was hardly the lucky one in this story.
? Fortunato thinks Montresor is trying to talk him out of trying the Amontillado, but the reader knows this is exactly what Montresor wants him to do.
? Another pun: Let us be gone. Montresor repeats Fortunato’s words, not sayingthat they shall leave together, but that Fortunato will be gone from this life.
? “Your health is precious.” The murderer pretends to show concern for his victim’s health. The reader of the story knows this, but the victim does not.
? Fortunato speaks of “the brotherhood.” It is an allusion to Freemasonry, a fraternal order that began in the Middle Ages. Montresor ironically identifies himself as a member of the society, by producing a masonry trowel (i.e., a pun).
o Point of view – The story is told from first-person point of view by a narrator who directly addresses a listener.
o Setting – The story begins in a carnival.Montresor may have waited until carnival time to have an excuse to wear a mask in public so that no one would recognize him as he walked with his victim.He might have also waited until then to insure that his servants would all leave the house to attend the festivities so that he would have a private setting for his crime. Poe has set the story in an Italian city, mostly likely Venice, where such carnivals where common. He also chose a European locale because he needed a culture, unlike America, in which catacombs were common. The catacombs were an eerie place, which held the remains of soled dead bodies. They were depressing and gloomy.

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