the cask of amontillado summary and analysis

Montresor offers wine (first Médoc, then De Grave) to Fortunato in order to keep him inebriated.

Fortunato goes with Montresor to the wine cellars of the latter's palazzo, where they wander in the catacombs. Montresor knows Fortunato will not be able to resist demonstrating his discerning palate for wine and will insist that he taste the Amontillado rather than Luchesi who, as he claims, 'cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry'. He proposes obtaining confirmation of the pipe's contents by inviting a fellow wine aficionado, Luchesi, for a private tasting. Montresor lures Fortunato into a private wine-tasting excursion by telling him he has obtained a pipe (about 130 gallons, or 492 litres) of what he believes to be a rare vintage of Amontillado. Angry over numerous injuries and some unspecified insult, Montresor plots to murder his 'friend' during Carnival, while the man is drunk, dizzy, and wearing a jester's motley.

The story's narrator, Montresor, tells an unspecified person, who knows him very well, of the day he took his revenge on Fortunato (Italian for 'the fortunate one'), a fellow nobleman. The story has been frequently adapted in multiple forms since its original publication.įortunato and Montresor drink in the catacombs.

Poe may have been inspired to write the story by his own real-life desire for revenge against contemporary literary rivals. Further, Fortunato is depicted as an expert on wine, which Montresor exploits in his plot, but he does not display the type of respect towards alcohol expected of such experts. However, Poe also leaves clues that Montresor has lost his family's prior status and blames Fortunato. Scholars have noted that Montresor's reasons for revenge are unclear and that he may simply be insane. At the end of the story, Montresor reveals that 50 years have passed since he took revenge and Fortunato's body has not been disturbed. For unknown reasons, Montresor seeks revenge upon Fortunato and is actually luring him into a trap, entombing him alive within the catacombs. Fortunato follows him into the Montresor family vaults, which also serve as catacombs. Montresor invites Fortunato to sample amontillado that he has just purchased without proving its authenticity. As in ' The Black Cat' and ' The Tell-Tale Heart', Poe conveys the story from the murderer's perspective. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the subject, the narrative follows a person being buried alive – in this case, by immurement. The story, set in an unnamed Italian city at carnival time, is about a man taking fatal revenge on a friend who, he believes, has insulted him. ' The Cask of Amontillado' (sometimes spelled ' The Casque of Amontillado' ) is a short story by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book. Illustration of 'The Cask of Amontillado' by Harry Clarke, 1919

The cask of amontillado summary and analysis