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Transcript

An Introduction

  • Short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the November 1846.
  • The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year.
  • It is about the narrator's deadly revenge on a friend whom he believes has insulted him.
  • The narrative revolves around a person being buried alive—in this case, by immurement.
  • As in "The Black Cat", and "The Tell-Tale Heart", Poe conveys the story through the murderer's perspective.

Inspiration

  • Came from a story Poe had heard at Castle Island (South Boston), Massachusetts, when he was a private there in 1827. (apocryphal legend)
  • He saw a monument of Lieutenant Robert Massie. Massie had been killed in a sword duel on Christmas Day 1817 by Lieutenant Gustavus Drane, following a dispute during a card game.
  • According to the legend, other soldiers then took revenge on Drane by getting him drunk, luring him into the dungeon, chaining him to a wall, and sealing him in a vault.
  • As a response to his personal rival Thomas Dunn English.
  • Usually confronted each other by using literary caricatures.
  • Poe thought that one of English's writings went a bit too far, and successfully sued his editor
  • That year English published a revenge-based novel called 1844. It made references to secret societies and ultimately had a main theme of revenge.
  • It included a character who used phrases like "Nevermore" and "lost Lenore", referring to Poe's poem "The Raven".
  • This parody of Poe was depicted as a drunkard, liar, and an abusive lover.
  • Used very specific references to English's novel.
  • Fortunato makes reference to the secret society of Masons.
  • Montresor's coat of arms bearing a foot stomping on a snake is similar to the English's image of the token with a hawk grasping a snake in its claws.
  • Furthermore, the snake is biting the heel.
  • Most of "The Cask of Amontillado" comes from a scene in 1844 that takes place in a subterranean vault (catacomb).
  • In the end, then, it is Poe who "punishes with impunity" (reference to "nemo me impune lacessit")

Doxa and Presuppositions

Characters:

  • In Poe's tales of criminal insanity, the narrative voice is always in first person perspective.
  • Produce unreliable confessions.
  • They control the narrative, and we see only through their eyes.
  • They describe their own pathological actions so meticulously that they demonstrate that they are actually insane.
  • Montresor confesses this story fifty years after its occurrence; making the narrative all the more unreliable.
  • “The Cask of Amontillado” takes subjective interpretation.
  • The narrators’ diction, which is precise and often ornate, suggests a serious investment in confession as a defense of sanity.

The Tone of the Story could be said to be exaggerated, malevolent or sinister...

  • "thousand injuries” and “insult.” (exaggerated)
  • "My dear Fortunato" (sinister)
  • "I must not only punish but punish with impunity." (malevolence)

There is a transition in the tone of the story from comic to sinister/dark to horror as the story progresses. This adds aura to the plot....

A Sarcastic tone:

  • Montresor hints at Fortunato's end with his not so funny jokes about the trowel he carries.
  • manipulative techniques (suggesting that he will go ask Luchesi instead bothering fortunato)
  • Even though the murder is supposed to be horrifying, the reader still enjoys it.
  • This leaves the reader feeling a bit guilty and horrified at their own manipulation.

"For the love of god, Montresor!"

  • Fortunato accepts his earthly demise and instead mocks the capacity for prayer to influence life on Earth.
  • maintains the hope that Montresor is playing a complex practical joke.
  • italicized words (panic)

Setting:

  • Most of the story takes place in a cellar or catacomb
  • Details suggest it is most likely somewhere in Italy during the 18th or 19th century
  • Both Fortunato and Luchesi are Italian names
  • At one point, Montresor refers to his home as a "palazzo" (Italian word)
  • Montresor recounts events from 50 years ago.
  • Since the book was published in 1846, we can assume the stor takes place in the 1790's

Mood:

  • Suspense (since the very start of the plot, Montresor was determined to murder Fortunato)
  • Creepy, dark, scary, or morbid (due to setting)
  • Largely established through the setting
  • Examples:
  • last night of Mardi Gras, hints at the deprivation and "end of the party" to come.
  • Fortunato's costume denotes his foolish mistakes

Elements of the American Gothic Literature

  • gloomy setting,
  • grotesque, mysterious, or violent events
  • an atmosphere of degeneration and decay

Imagery And Figurative Connotations

The Amontillado

  • Temptation
  • Human nature

Crypt

  • religious abandon and the violation of sacred humanity

Carnival

  • liberation from respectable social behavior

Color imagery

'Black silk mask'

  • Used to question Montresors motives
  • Most people think it means blind justice
  • In fact it is the gothic opposite: biased revenge

Motley-colored costume of the court fool

  • Fortunato gets tragically fooled

Nitre

  • Fortunato gets aggravated by this substance in the cave and starts coughing
  • Foreshadows the suffering that he is going to go through
  • Fortunato says, “I shall not die of a cough,” Montresor replies, “True” . This Foreshadows that he will instead die from dehydration and starvation in the crypt.

Allusions to the bones of Montresor’s family

  • Foreshadows the descent into the underworld

Underground travel

  • Metaphor for their trip to hell
  • They leave the carnival (in the land of the living)
  • Got to the realm of the dead (satanic imagery)

The coat of arms:

  • foot represents Montresor
  • serpent represents Fortunato

Conversation about masons:

  • Declares that he is a “mason” by showing his trowel
  • Furthermore, he declares he is a stone mason (constructs things out of stones and mortar)
  • Foreshadows 'fortunatos grave'

Montresor exploits these sentiments leading Fortunato to his end.

Revenge

- Is revenge ever Justified?

- What does a personal revenge do to a person?

Citations

  • Poe, Edgar Allan. “‘The Cask of Amontillado.’” Internet Archive, The Library Shelf, archive.org/stream/thecaskofamontil01063gut/1063.txt.
  • “Literary Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe.” Edgar Allan Poe Free Essays, 27 Nov. 2017, edgar-allan-poe.123-helpme.com/literary-analysis-of-edgar-allan-poe/.

R

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Alcoholism

Fortunato:

  • A respected and feared man
  • A proud connoisseur of fine wine,
  • Dressed as a court jester
  • Falls prey to Montresor’s scheme at a particularly carefree moment during a carnival.

Montresor

  • very mysterious, not much is known about him.
  • Murders Fortunato for insulting him by walling him up alive behind bricks in a wine cellar (immurement).

Pride

Deception

Other Presuppositions

A Brief Summary

Themes and Motifs

Masquerade

Revenge

At masquerades people abandon social conventions and leave themselves vulnerable to crime.

Montresor uses the carnival’s masquerade to fool Fortunato into his own demise.

The theme of masquerade as social deception also occurs in "William Wilson" and "Masque of Red Death"

Symbol of joy and social liberation. Reality is suspended, and people can temporarily assume another identity.

  • From the very start of the book the theme is set and plot is foreshadowed to be revenge...
  • Throughout the book, the theme of revenge is constantly recurring

Irony

Animal Motifs

Animal imagery provokes and informs crimes committed between humans. It signals the absence of human reason and morality,

Throughout the story, Poe uses verbal and dramatic irony to build suspense,

It is used in many other stories such as "Black Cat" and the 'Vulture's Eye' from "Tell Tale Heart"

Examples

  • The Title: The word cask, meaning wine barrel, is derived from the same root word used to form casket, meaning coffin.
  • Fortunato’s Name: The Italian name Fortunato suggests good fortune, luck. However, Fortunato is anything but fortunate
  • Fortunato’s Costume: Fortunato dresses as a court jester. His festive outfit contrasts with the ghastly fate that awaits him.
  • Reference To Masons
  • Use of dialougue

All he did was step on the snake that provided him biting insults

foreshadow the ending, and add a touch of macabre humor.

Montresor himself is willing to commit the crime by equating himself with an animal.

Animal Motif in "Cask Of Amontillado"

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