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“The Cask of Amontillado” By Edgar Allan Poe
Prompt one
These words were spoken by Montresor, the protagonist in the story. In the beginning, Montresor clearly states his intention of revenge against his enemy Fortunato whom he claims hurt him. In this context, Montresor uses the words like “unredressed,” “retribution” “avenger” and “redresser” to claim that though he is planning to punish Fortunato for the wrong he did, the revenge (retribution) will not be meaningful if he is caught and punished for undertaking the revenge. This thought makes him keep his intention a top-secret, making him escape with the crime. Besides, he feels that the avenger (redresser) only gets satisfied if the victim understands the reason for punishment. To him, he won’t feel right if Fortunato, whom he wants to punish, won’t feel the punishment. Therefore, killing Fortunato alone isn’t enough; he has to make him understand the reason for the killing.
Prompt Two
From the beginning, we know that Montresor had a master plan to get Fortunato and betray him because of the injury he caused him. But in this excerpt, he still smiles at his enemy. This smile is deceptive because it hides Montresor’s intentions of revenge. Montresor uses this smile to conceal his motive; then, he goes ahead with his plans without Fortunato realizing. Besides, it makes Fortunato think that Montresor is friendly, and this makes it easy for Montresor to lure him. The irony here is that the narrator is acting friendly to everyone, yet he has plotted to kill Fortunato. If Montresor had used a harsh tone towards Fortunato, he could have created an illusion that Montresor has ill intentions making it hard to be lured. This indirect characterization portrays Montresor as vengeful because he acted to win his enemy’s trust.
Prompt Three
Montresor said these words after he has strategically planned for a meeting with Fortunato. He tells his servants to stay home because he won’t be home until morning. Since the workers neither respect him nor like him, he knows they will disobey his orders. He tells them that he will be away the whole night so that they feel free and sneak to the carnival party. This would ensure that Montresor has the house for himself and Fortunato and have the freedom to execute his revenge with no interference from servants. To him, the absence of his workers means a peaceful environment.
In this context, Montresor applies reversed psychology because he knows the servants don’t respect him and will attend the celebrations. Because of this disrespect, he knows that his servants always do the opposite of what he says, so when he tells them to stay home, the workers will disappear to the party. To them, “stay at home “orders and the absence throughout the night means that they now have the freedom to go away. This eventually works well for him because immediately, he issues the orders. The workers do precisely the opposite of what he said- they go to the celebration, leaving him in a peaceful environment.
Prompt Four
From these words, Montresor sounds concerned with the wellbeing of Fortunato. He tries to be helpful by giving him false hope that he won’t die, yet the readers know his motive. He pretends to be helpful so that he can easily lure him to the catacombs and kill him. Additionally, Montresor looks friendly in the way he is generous with wine, but inwardly he knows it was meant to manipulate Fortunato so that he dies from his revenge. This friendly treatment makes Fortunato trust him until he goes ahead to ask for more wine. The irony here is that Montresor looks friendly to Fortunato, yet we know he is just preparing him for death.
Prompt Five
In the story, the word mason has a double meaning. According to Fortunato, a mason (from freemason) means a member of a secret organization, while to Montresor, it means a person who builds the wall. The trowel is used to spread mortars that hold building bricks together, and the motor symbolizes the brotherhood that holds freemason members together. Mason is the source of conflict between two men because Montresor’s motive for killing Fortunato was motivated by hatred and fear that he had towards Freemasonry. This is evident when Montresor reveals his motive by saying,” Yes,” I said, “for the love of god”(Poe 10) Montresor is not just echoing Fortunato’s oath but giving a reason for killing.
Prompt Six
Borne – carried, the narrator walked around/endured injuries that were caused by Fortunato
Impunity – exemption from punishment
Unredressed – not set right
Retribution – revenge/punishment for a wrongdoing
Redresser – a person who gives redress
Avenger – someone who takes revenge
Wont – a habitual behavior
Immolation – to kill as a sacrifice
Connoisseurship- love for beautiful objects
Gemmary – jewelry or gems
Amontillado- a type of wine that is dark in color
Pipe –a narrow tube
Catacombs – an underground cemetery that Montresor has in his compound
Rheum- watery fluid from the eyes and nose
Nitre- web /trap
Gesticulation- gesture /sign
Fettered –Restricted
The story is about the confession of murder committed by Montresor. He decides to tell the story fifty years later because he feels that he has escaped the punishment for killing Fortunato just as he had wished. Montresor being a catholic, decides to confess to a priest whom he claims knows him well.
In “The Cask of Amontillado,” the unreliability of Montresor is revealed through direct characterization. He keeps on claiming that Fortunato wronged him, yet he doesn’t mention the wrong that Fortunato did. This makes the reader fails to agree with his revenge on Fortunato. Besides, he says that he hears the heartbeat of the man he buried, but when the police come, they do not hear the sounds. This makes him a character who cannot be trusted. Montresor also demonstrates he is an unreliable character where he says that he has obtained a cask of Amontillado, yet we can tell that he hasn’t. He says, “I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado but I have my doubts “(Poe 4). Unfortunately, Fortunato follows him, but that leads to his death. According to Saxton (2017), his vengeful character is demonstrated when he punishes Fortunato for the wrong that he imagines, and he gets away with it. “At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely, settled –but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unrepressed when retribution overtakes its redresser”. (Poe 3)
His characters portray Fortunato as an arrogant man. When Montresor approaches Fortunato during the carnival celebration, he claims, “Pride himself on his connoisseurship of wine (Poe 4). Fortunato feels so superior to his ability to identify fine wine to the extent that he speaks badly about Luchesi, by claiming that he can’t differentiate sherry from Amontillado (Poe 4). When he starts coughing, he dismisses though he got it from the nitre in the Montresor’s catacombs; he calls it mere minuscule yet is not severe.
Works Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. The cask of Amontillado. The Creative Company, 2008.
Saxton, Audrey. “The Devil’s in the Details: A Characterization of Montresor in Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”.” Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism 10.1 (2017): 16