| The Cask Of Amontillado |
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| 1846 short stories | |
| short stories by edgar allan poe | |
| horror short stories | |
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SUMMARY The story begins during the Carnival , in an unspecified Italian city. The First Person Narrator , Montresor, bears a grudge — the reader never learns exactly why — against one of his "friends", who, Ironically enough, is named Fortunato, and explains that has found a way to avenge himself that satisfies the two conditions he has: that Fortunato knows for sure that Montresor is behind it, and that he himself escapes revenge or punishment. Montresor finds his friend, Fortunato Inebriated , and dressed in carnival Costume as a Jester at dusk. Using Reverse Psychology , he cleverly induces Fortunato, whose knowledge of fine Wine he admires, to follow him into the Catacomb s underneath his ''palazzo'' to determine if his newly-acquired Cask of Amontillado — a kind of Spanish Sherry — is indeed authentic, and thus worth the price he paid. They walk and talk, deep into the basement, discussing Fortunato's health, the Montresor family motto ('' Nemo Me Impune Lacessit '' — "No one provokes me with impunity"), and membership in the Freemasons (with double meaning). The ominous atmosphere intensifies as they continue to the damp, Nitrous air of the Montresor Crypt . Dumbfounded at the absence of the amontillado at the end of their passage, Fortunato stands "stupidly bewildered" and Montresor takes advantage of the situation, suddenly chaining Fortunato to the wall in a small alcove roughly the size of a Coffin . Montresor proceeds to seal the doorway with bricks as Fortunato slowly regains his Sobriety and starts to plead in desperation. During the process of entombing Fortunato alive (a recurring and symbolic theme in Poe's works), Montresor ironically taunts him with his freedom, but in the end walls him up completely and leaves him, concluding his story with an exclamation in Latin "''In pace requiescat!''" ("May he rest in peace!"). He tells us that this all happened fifty years ago, and nothing has happened since, fulfilling his original plan. ANALYSIS The story horrifies the reader both through its plot and, more importantly, the character of Montresor. Despite Montresor's use of the word "immolation" early on to describe his plan for Fortunato, the reader assumes due to his refined language, respect for Fortunato's knowledge of wine and social status that his revenge will take the form of some elaborate, if cruel, Practical Joke . When it becomes clear that he intends to actually not only kill Fortunato but inflict a horrible death upon him, it comes as a shock. Montresor himself may qualify as a for that reason. Since we never learn what his grudges were, and Fortunato as we see him does not seem like the kind of person capable of giving such offense, it is possible that they are purely imaginary. We can also see from the story that Montresor is quite professional. Since Montresor's telling of the story offers no distance for the reader from his singleminded yet calculating devotion to his homicidal intentions, it compounds the horror. There are also many instances of , as Montresor intends to use his actual Masonry skills to kill Fortunato. He also drinks to Fortunato's long life and health, which will in actuality make his death more protracted and painful. Possible allegory One reading has it that the story is part of the War Of The Literati in which Poe wants to intimidate his enemies in the field of literature. Fortunato represents Thomas Dunn English , a contemporary who insulted him several times ("The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne...") and Luchesi represents Hiram Fuller , editor of the ''Evening Mirror'' in New York. This short story may also be a confession from Edgar Allan Poe himself. STORIES INFLUENCED BY "THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO" laying a wall ... or bricking up a niche" and there is some dialogue that echoes that in the Poe story ("For the love of God, Robinson!" "Yes ... for the love of God!"). King even describes the character as "Poe-like" in his explanation of the story's origins, but doesn't directly admit "The Cask of Amontillado" as an inspiration. However, King unlike Poe makes his protagonist sympathetic, giving him a plausible reason for his revenge (the death of his wife), showing the lengthy planning and preparations he takes and also depicting his fears that Dolan will return from the dead and kill him. The story also bears comparison with James Thurber 's "The Catbird Seat," another tale of perfect (although nonlethal) revenge for a rather minor slight. In the short story "Usher II" by Ray Bradbury (from The Martian Chronicles ) the main charater exacts revenge on a posh, censoring society (censorship is a theme in Bradbury's works) using methods from various books. He ends by sealing an FBI-type agent in the catacombs below the house. He then taunts the agent, urging him to quote the story. The main character then leaves, telling the agent that if he had read Poe, he could have escaped this fate. In an episode of '''', a TV Series set in Baltimore , which claims Poe as a native son due to his death there, a criminal not only mimicked the sealing off of his victim but read Poe aloud as he did so. In an episode of '' The Simpsons '' entitled " C.E. D'oh ", Mr. Burns attempts to murder Homer Simpson by the method in "The Cask of Amontillado." After luring him to a graveyeard, Burns shoots Homer with a tranquilizer dart so that he falls asleep inside a mausoleum. Mr. Burns proceeds to attempt to build a wall of bricks to imprison him, but due to his old and feeble nature only manages to lay three layers before Homer awakens and casually exits the crypt. In an episode of '' Angel '', a mother entombs her son Dennis in a wall in the middle of her apartment to punish him for his engagement. The episode ends with Cordelia smashing the wall down and the mother's ghost seeing the remains of her dead son. The March 2003 issue of The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction contains a short story by John Morressy entitled "The Resurrection of Fortunato." The premise of the story is that Fortunato escapes Montresor's trap and flees into the nearby forest. He lives with some woodsmen for a time and then returns to the city to discover his family has died of the plague. After some violent run-ins, he ends up spending years in a monastery, leaving only after a plague kills off the other monks. He returns to the city and a servant (who believes he is a priest) brings to the bedside of the dying Montresor, who unknowingly confesses his crime to his would-be victim. After Montresor dies, Fortunato forgives him and utters "In pace requiescat." Two movies entitled " Buried Alive " have a similar plot of having the protagonist seemingly killed but return to exact revenge and bury the antagonist alive CSI aired an episode in which a girl was "buried" in a similar fashion. Sarah also made reference to another of Poe's works, '' The Tell-Tale Heart ''. EXTERNAL LINKS
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