the cask of amontillado summary and analysis

Its murderous narrator links the story to ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘ The Black Cat’ its focus on revenge and the misuse of alcohol links it to ‘Hop-Frog’ the alcohol motif is also seen in ‘The Black Cat’, while the use of jester’s motley also suggests a link with Poe’s other great revenge tale, ‘Hop-Frog’, where the title character is a jester in the employ of a corrupt king. ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ can be productively linked – via comparative analysis – with a number of other Poe stories.

This pun is confirmed later in the story by Montresor’s reference to the ‘mason-work’ when he is walling his hapless rival up inside the catacombs. Poe makes his point by some subterranean wordplay on mason: Fortunato refers to the freemasons, that secret elite society known for its mutual favours and coded signs, gestures, and rituals, but Montresor’s trowel suggests the stonemasons, those artisans and labourers who are not aristocrats but possess great manual skill.

It may be that Montresor – his name perhaps suggesting acquired wealth rather than first-rank nobility like Fortunato (who has inherited his wealth and name by being ‘fortunate’ enough to be born into the right aristocratic family) – is not quite of the same pedigree as Fortunato, and so has had none of the advantages and benefits that Fortunato has enjoyed. This moment suggests a further underlying reason for Montresor’s desire for revenge: Fortunato insults him by belittling him and reminding him that he is not part of the same ‘club’ as Fortunato.

‘You jest,’ he exclaimed, recoiling a few paces. ‘It is this,’ I answered, producing from beneath the folds of my roquelaire a trowel. This taut, clipped conversation continues, as Poe deftly outlines the underlying reasons for the animosity that exists between the two men: He repeated the movement – a grotesque one. He laughed and threw the bottle upwards with a gesticulation I did not understand. Another clue comes when Montresor fails to interpret a gesture made by Fortunato: Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, put it: ‘Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.’Īlthough ‘Montresor’, the narrator’s name, suggests literally a ‘mountain of treasure’, the fortunate Fortunato still has the edge: as we know from such stories as Lawrence’s ‘The Rocking-Horse Winner’, money is worth little without luck, for luck is how one acquires more money (though hard work doesn’t go amiss, of course). First of all, there is Fortunato’s name, suggesting fortune (wealth) but also being fortunate (luck), two qualities which don’t tend to enamour people to you, even though one’s possession of one or both of them hasn’t necessarily harmed anyone else. There are several clues offered by Poe in the story which suggest this as a plausible analysis of Montresor’s character and motivation.

The cask of amontillado summary and analysis