The Cask of Amontillado

by Edgar Allan Poe

“…but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.”

“The Cask of Amontillado” is the narrator’s account of his ability

to carry out a chilling plot of revenge against his offender.

Terms to Remember

Mood

• Emotion evoked in the reader by a piece of writing

• Mood can be identified by descriptive details author uses

• NON-EXAMPLE: We walked down the hallway

• STRONG EXAMPLE: We crept down the long, dark hallway (you can identify the suspenseful mood by the vivid verb crept and the descriptive details long and dark)

Mood Words List

• POSITIVE MOOD WORDS  • Playful • Tender • Enlightened • Optimistic• Light-Hearted• Warm• Hopeful• Nostalgic• Peaceful• Welcoming • Harmonious • Vivacious• Confident• Idyllic• Joyous• Dignified• Ecstatic• Empowered       

• NEGATIVE MOOD WORDS• Tense• Gloomy• Violent• Deceitful (an untrustworthy individual)• Pessimistic• Confining• Cold• Hopeless• Haunting• Nightmarish• Hostile• Suspenseful• Foreboding (a feeling that something bad will

happen)• Threatening• Desolate (a depressingly empty location)• Merciless• Terrifying

Dramatic Irony

• What appears to be true to a character is not what the reader or audience knows to be true.

• STRONG EXAMPLE: A boy tells his mother he is late because he was at a friend’s house. The audience knows that the mother talked to friend’s mother and knows son was not there

Dramatic Irony

• “’I drink to the buried that repose around us,” says Fortunato. “And I to your long life,” Montresor replies.”

• Montresor is not really drinking to Fortunato’s long life; he is playing on the fact that he will soon kill Fortunato.

• What type of irony is this?

Carnival

• Carnival is a nonreligious holiday, but it evolved from the Christian observance known as Lent.

• Lent is a sincere forty-day period of fasting prior to Easter.

CARNIVAL

• Traditionally, the fasting during Lent involves abstaining from eating meat.

• Modern interpretations of fasting may involve abstaining from anything one enjoys.

Carnival in English = Carnevale in Italian

Carne + Vale FLESH (Meat) + FAREWELL

In anticipation of the seriousness of Lent, the celebration of Carnival evolved.

Participants engage in excessive eating and drinking to bid farewell to meat-eating (and merriment).

Partying in the streets and masquerading are enjoyed.

European Carnival traditions survive in the United States in

the form of Mardi Gras.

“The Cask of Amontillado” is set during the “supreme madness”

of Carnival.

In such a riotous atmosphere, it is easy to see how a crime could go

unnoticed.

Clothing

Fortunato

Narrator in his Roquelaire

Lifestyles of the RichSymbols of Wealth & Status

Circa 1700-1800

The wealthy class enjoyed indulgences such as

• Gemmary

Paintings

Fine Wine (vintages)

Coat of Arms

• A Latin family motto is a claim of status.

• Translation: “No one provokes me with impunity”

Mr. Young’s translation: “No one attacks me and gets away with it.”

Status Symbols

•

Status Symbols

•

Palazzos (mansions)

•

Vineyards, where the grapes for producing wine are grown, create picturesque settings for owners’

estates.

The narrator plans for his revenge to take place in the

catacombs beneath his estate.

What are catacombs?

Catacombs are characterized by extensive tunnels leading to

chambers or recesses where the dead rest for eternity.

Catacombs: Cities of the Dead

The wealthy could opt for family catacombs beneath their estates.

The narrator of “The Cask of Amontillado” carries out his

revenge within the catacombs beneath his mansion.

The narrator is able to lure his victim into the catacombs with

the promise of amontillado, a fine sherry wine.

The Storage of Wine

For wines to maintain their

best quality, they need to be stored at fairly cool and

constant temperatures.

During the time period in which the story is set, modern electric refrigeration was not available.

To protect wine collections, connoisseurs adopted the practice

of storing wines under the ground where temperatures

remain ideal year-round.

Basements, cellars, and even catacombs serve as excellent

storage facilities for the precious vintages.

Where wine bottles intermingle with the bones of the dead, the narrator carries out his plan for revenge.

And just to think . . . This horrifying tale takes place on a festive night of Carnival