THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

'"The Cask of Amontillado"' (sometimes spelled '"The Casque of Amontillado"') is a short story, written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in the November 1846 issue of ''Godey's Lady's Book''.
The story is set in 19th century Italy and concerns the deadly revenge taken by the insane narrator on a friend who he claims has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th century fascination with the subject, the narrative revolves around a person being buried alive.
As in "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe tells the story from the murderer's point of view.

Contents

Plot summary

Inspiration

References

External links

Plot summary

Montresor tells the story of the night, half a century before, that he took his revenge on Fortunato, an Italian nobleman. Angry over some unspecified insult, he plots to murder his friend during carnival when the man is drunk and wearing a jester's motley.
He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained, out of season, what he believes to be a pipe of Amontillado (a Spanish sherry); he isn't sure, however, and wants his friend's expert opinion on the subject. Fortunato goes with Montresor to the wine cellars of the latter's palazzo, where they wander deep underground in the catacombs. Montresor gives Fortunato more to drink; at one point, Fortunato makes an elaborate, and, to the narrator's eyes, grotesque gesture with an upraised wine bottle. When Montresor fails to recognize the gesture, Fortunato asks, "You are not of the masons?" - Montresor says he is, and when Fortunato, disbelieving, requests a sign, Montresor displays a trowel he had been hiding.
Montresor repeatedly warns Fortunato, who has a bad cough, of the damp and suggests they go back; Fortunato insists on continuing, claiming that "[he] shall not die of a cough." During their walk, Montresor mentions his family coat of arms - a golden foot crushing a snake whose fangs are embedded in the foot's heel - with the motto is ''Nemo me impune lacessit'' (No one strikes me with impunity). When they come to a niche, Montresor tells his victim that the Amontillado is within. Fortunato enters, and, drunk and unsuspecting, does not resist as Montresor quickly chains him to the wall. Montresor then declares that, since Fortunato won't go back, he must "positively leave [him]."
Montresor then remorselessly walls up the niche, entombing his friend alive. At first, Fortunato shakes the chains furiously, trying to escape. The narrator stops working for a while so he can enjoy the sound. Fortunato then screams for help, but Montresor mocks his cries, knowing nobody can hear them. Later, Fortunato laughs weakly and tries to pretend that he is the subject of a joke and that people will soon miss him (including the Lady Fortunato). As the murderer finishes the topmost row of stones, Fortunato wails despairingly "''For the love of God, Montresor!''" Montresor replies calmly "Yes; for the love of God!" He listens for a reply but hears only the jester's bells ringing as he places the last stone.
In the last few sentences, Montresor reveals that he has never been caught, and Fortunato's body still hangs from its chains in the niche where he left it so many years before. The murderer, obviously unrepentant, ends the story by quipping: ''In pace requiescat'' (Latin: "Rest in peace").

Inspiration

A apocryphal legend holds that the inspiration for "The Cask of Amontillado" came from a story Poe had heard at Castle Island (South Boston), Massachusetts when he was a private there in 1827.^[1] According to this legend, Poe was told the story of a brawl in which one lieutenant named Drane killed another officer, named Massie, after a disagreement at cards. Some versions of the legend hold that Drane was subsequently buried alive by friends of Massie, but this report appears to be an inaccuracy influenced by Poe's story, as Drane is known to have been alive years later.^[2]. A report of a skeleton discovered on the island may be a confused remembering of Poe's major source, Joel Headley's "A Man Built in a Wall" (1844) which recounts the author's seeing an immured skeleton in the wall of a church in Italy.^[3] Headley's story includes details very similar to "The Cask of Amontillado"; in addition to walling an enemy into a hidden niche, the story details the careful placement of the bricks, the motive of revenge, and the victim's agonizing moaning. Poe may have also seen similar themes in Honoré de Balzac's "Le Grande Bretêche" (''Democratic Review'', November 1843) or his friend George Lippard's ''The Quaker City; or The Monks of Monk Hall'' (1845).^[4]
Poe wrote his tale, however, as a response to his personal rival Thomas Dunn English. Poe and English had several confrontations, usually centered around literary caricatures of one another. One of English's writings went a bit too far, and Poe successfully sued his editors at ''The New York Mirror'' for libel in 1846.^[5] That year English published a revenge-based novel called ''1844, or, The Power of the S.F.'' Its plot was convoluted and difficult to follow, but made references to secret societies and ultimately had a main theme of revenge. It included a character named Marmaduke Hammerhead, the famous author of "The Black Crow," who uses phrases like "Nevermore" and "lost Lenore." This parody of Poe was depicted as a drunkard, liar, and domestic abuser. Poe responded with "The Cask of Amontillado," using very specific references to English's novel. In Poe's story, for example, Fortunato makes reference to the secret society of Masons, similar to the secret society in ''1844'', and even makes a gesture similar to one portrayed in ''1844'' (it was a signal of distress). English had also used an image of a token with a hawk grasping a snake in its claws, similar to Montresor's coat of arms bearing a foot stomping on a snake - though in this image, the snake is biting the heel. In fact, much of the scene of "The Cask of Amontillado" comes from a scene in ''1844'' that takes place in a subterranean vault. In the end, then, it is Poe who "punishes with impunity," by not taking credit for his own literary revenge and by crafting a concise tale (as opposed to a novel) with a singular effect, as he had suggested in his essay "The Philosophy of Composition."^[6]
Poe may have also been inspired, at least in part, by the Washingtonian movement, a fellowship that very passionately promoted temperance. The group was made up of reformed drinkers who tried to scare people into abstaining from alcohol. Poe may have made a promise to join the movement in 1843 after a bout of drinking with the hopes of gaining a political appointment. "The Cask of Amontillado" then may be a "dark temperance" tale, meant to shock people into realizing the dangers of drinking.^[7]

References

1.
★ Bergen, Philip. ''Old Boston in Early Photographs''. Boston: Bostonian Society, 1990. p. 106
2. External link
3. Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, editor. ''Tales and Sketches: Volume II''. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2000. p. 1254
4. Reynolds, David F. "Poe's Art of Transformation: 'The Cask of Amontillado' in Its Cultural Context," as collected in ''The American Novel: New Essays on Poe's Major Tales'', Kenneth Silverman, ed. Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0521422433 p. 94-5
5. Silverman, Kenneth. ''Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance''. Harper Perennial, 1991. p. 312-3
6. Rust, Richard D. "Punish with Impunity: Poe, Thomas Dunn English and 'The Cask of Amontillado'" in ''The Edgar Allan Poe Review'', Vol. II, Issue 2 - Fall, 2001, St. Joseph's University.
7. Reynolds, David F. "Poe's Art of Transformation: 'The Cask of Amontillado' in Its Cultural Context," as collected in ''The American Novel: New Essays on Poe's Major Tales'', Kenneth Silverman, ed. Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0521422433 p. 96-7

External links

★ "The Cask of Amontillado" - Full text of the first printing, from ''Godey's Lady's Book'', 1846

★ ''The Cask of Amontillado'', found online at Ye Olde Library

★ ''The Cask of Amontillado'' at American Literature

★ Full text on PoeStories.com with hyperlinked vocabulary words.

★ Free-to-download MP3 dramatisation of the story (Yuri Rasovsky)