From the Bookshelf of Morales 2341 Spring 2015 Class TTH…

The Cask of Amontillado

Edgar Allan Poe

Start date: March 12, 2015

Finish date: March 17, 2015

Discussion: War, Murder, and Violence

Discussion leader: Lillian Morales

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 1 of 1 topics — 44 comments total

War, Murder, and Violence

Crazy Personas
By Lillian · 44 posts · 25 views

last updated Mar 26, 2015 01:13AM

What Members Thought

Mar 24, 2015 Christa Lopez rated it really liked it

The first time I ever read “The Cask of Amontillado” I was about 12 years old, and my first impression was that it was just a vaguely written story about revenge. However now that I have read it again I realize that the irony within the story is part of what makes this tale so captivating.

This story takes place during the carnival season in Italy, but underneath the merry drinking and festivities a brilliantly horrible murder is taking place. The tale is being told by Montresor fifty years afte The first time I ever read “The Cask of Amontillado” I was about 12 years old, and my first impression was that it was just a vaguely written story about revenge. However now that I have read it again I realize that the irony within the story is part of what makes this tale so captivating.

This story takes place during the carnival season in Italy, but underneath the merry drinking and festivities a brilliantly horrible murder is taking place. The tale is being told by Montresor fifty years after he has committed his crime. Montresor has been insulted by Fortunato, and so for the sake of his honor he devises a plan to “...not only punish, but punish with impunity”(4). Montresor knows that Fortunato takes pride in being a wine expert, and he uses this to lure Fortunato into the catacombs of Montresor’s family by asking him to appraise a pipe of Amontillado. Along the way Montresor pretends to be concerned about Fortunato’s health due to the cold dampness inside of the catacombs and tries to get him to turn back by saying that he’d rather go ask someone else, but Fortunato refuses. Finally when they reach the end of the catacombs Montresor seizes the opportunity to chain up Fortunato, and builds up a wall to trap him there where he can rest in piece.

What I found the most ironic was that Fortunato’s name means fortunate, and after reading it is obvious that he is quite unfortunate. Another would be that a time of celebration to everyone else could become the perfect backdrop to a murder. Also the fact that Montresor calls Fortunato “my dear friend” throughout the story when he knows that he is going to kill him. In addition to this I found it interesting that Montresor describes Fortunato as wearing a jester’s outfit, which I think is done to tell the readers that he thinks that Fortunato is a fool. By doing this it is as if Montresor is trying to say that to be insulted by a fool is far worse than being insulted by anyone else which is probably why getting revenge was so important to him.

From the very first sentence, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” Poe is able to grab the reader’s attention because you immediately know that something wicked is about to happen and it makes you want to keep reading. However it also leaves us wondering what could Fortunato have done to cross Montresor in such a way that he would commit this crime? Although it is never revealed what Fortunato did or said in order to deserve such a horrible death, we can only assume that in Montresor’s dark twisted mind the punishment did fit the crime.
...more

Like · see review