The Cask Of Amontillado Summary

Short story past Edgar Allan Poe

The Cask of Amontillado
by Edgar Allan Poe
Illustration of "The Cask of Amontillado" by Harry Clarke, 1919
Land	Usa
Language	English language
Genre(due south)	Horror short story
Publication type	Periodical
Publisher	Godey'southward Lady's Book
Media type	Print (Mag)
Publication engagement	November 1846

"The Cask of Amontillado" (sometimes spelled "The Casque of Amontillado" [a.monday.ti.ˈʝa.ðo]) is a curt story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the November 1846 result of Godey's Lady'due south Book. The story, set up in an unnamed Italian urban center at funfair time in an unspecified year, is about a man taking fatal revenge on a friend who, he believes, has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the discipline, the narrative revolves around a person being buried live – in this instance, by immurement. As in "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", Poe conveys the story from the murderer'south perspective.

Montresor invites Fortunato to sample amontillado that he has but purchased without proving its authenticity. Fortunato follows him into the Montresor family vaults, which also serve as catacombs. For unknown reasons, Montresor seeks revenge upon Fortunato and is actually luring him into a trap. At the terminate of the story, the narrator reveals that 50 years have passed since he took revenge and Fortunato's body has not been disturbed.

Scholars have noted that Montresor's reasons for revenge are unclear and that he may simply be insane. Nonetheless, Poe too leaves clues that Montresor has lost his family's prior status and blames Fortunato. Further, Fortunato is depicted as an expert on wine, which Montresor exploits in his plot, just he does non brandish the type of respect towards alcohol expected of such experts. Poe may accept been inspired to write the story by his own existent-life want for revenge against contemporary literary rivals. The story has been oft adapted in multiple forms since its original publication.

Plot summary [edit]

Fortunato and Montresor potable in the catacombs. 1935 Illustration by Arthur Rackham

The story's narrator, Montresor, tells an unspecified person, who knows him very well, of the day he took his revenge on Fortunato (Italian for "the fortunate one"), a fellow nobleman. Aroused over numerous injuries and some unspecified insult, Montresor plots to murder his "friend" during Carnival, while the human is drunk, airheaded, and wearing a jester's motley.

Montresor lures Fortunato into a individual wine-tasting circuit by telling him he has obtained a pipe (most 130 gallons, or 492 litres) of what he believes to be a rare vintage of amontillado. He proposes obtaining confirmation of the pipe's contents by inviting a boyfriend vino addict, Luchesi, for a private tasting. Montresor knows Fortunato will non be able to resist demonstrating his discerning palate for vino and will insist that he taste the amontillado rather than Luchesi who, equally he claims, "cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry". Fortunato goes with Montresor to the wine cellars of the latter's palazzo, where they wander in the catacombs. Montresor offers wine (outset Médoc, then De Grave) to Fortunato in club to go on him inebriated. Montresor warns Fortunato, who has a bad cough, of the dampness, and suggests they go dorsum, but Fortunato insists on continuing, claiming that he "shall non die of a cough". During their walk, Montresor mentions his family unit coat of arms: a gilt foot in a blue background burdensome a snake whose fangs are embedded in the foot's heel, with the motto Nemo me impune lacessit ("No ane provokes me with dispensation").

At one point, Fortunato makes an elaborate, grotesque gesture with an upraised wine bottle. When Montresor appears not to recognize the gesture, Fortunato asks, "Y'all are not of the masons?" Montresor says he is, and when Fortunato, disbelieving, requests a sign, Montresor displays a trowel he had been hiding. When they come to a niche, Montresor tells his victim that the Amontillado is within. Fortunato enters drunkard and unsuspecting and therefore, does not resist equally Montresor chop-chop chains him to the wall. Montresor then declares that, since Fortunato won't go back, Montresor must "positively leave" him at that place.

Montresor reveals brick and mortar, previously hidden among the basic nearby, and proceeds to wall up the niche using his trowel, entombing his friend alive. At commencement, Fortunato, who sobers upwardly faster than Montresor anticipated, shakes the chains, trying to escape. Fortunato and so screams for assistance, but Montresor mocks his cries, knowing nobody can hear them. Fortunato laughs weakly and tries to pretend that he is the subject of a joke and that people volition be waiting for him (including the Lady Fortunato). As Montresor finishes the topmost row of stones, Fortunato wails, "For the love of God, Montresor!" to which Montresor replies, "Yep, for the love of God!" He listens for a reply but hears only the jester's bells ringing. Before placing the last stone, he drops a burning torch through the gap. He claims that he feels sick at middle, but dismisses this reaction as an consequence of the dampness of the catacombs.

In the last few sentences, Montresor reveals that 50 years later on, Fortunato'due south torso still hangs from its chains in the niche where he left information technology. The murderer concludes: In pace requiescat! ("May he rest in peace!").

Publication history [edit]

"The Cask of Amontillado" was first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book,^[i] which was, at the fourth dimension, the most popular periodical in America.^[two] The story was only published i additional time during Poe's life, in the November fourteen, 1846 New England Weekly Review.^[3]

Analysis [edit]

Although the field of study affair of Poe's story is a murder, "The Cask of Amontillado" is not a tale of detection similar "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" or "The Purloined Letter of the alphabet"; there is no investigation of Montresor's crime and the criminal himself explains how he committed the murder. The mystery in "The Cask of Amontillado" is in Montresor'southward motive for murder. Without a detective in the story, it is upwardly to the reader to solve the mystery.^[four] From the get-go of the story, it is fabricated clear that Montresor has exaggerated his grievances towards Fortunato. The reader is led to assume that much like his exaggerated grievances, the punishment he chooses will represent what he believes is equal justice, and in turn, going to the extreme.^[5]

Montresor never specifies his motive beyond the vague "1000 injuries" and "when he ventured upon insult" to which he refers. Some context is provided, including Montresor's observation that his family once was great (but no longer so), and Fortunato'south belittling remarks about Montresor's exclusion from Freemasonry. Many commentators conclude that, lacking significant reason, Montresor must be insane, though even this is questionable because of the intricate details of the plot.^[4]

There is also show that Montresor is nigh equally clueless about his motive for revenge as his victim.^[6] In his recounting of the murder, Montresor notes, "A incorrect is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has washed the wrong". Later on Fortunato is chained to the wall and virtually entombed alive, Montresor just mocks and mimics him, rather than disclosing to Fortunato the reasons behind his exacting revenge. Montresor may not have been entirely certain of the exact nature of the insults for which he expected Fortunato to absolve.^[vi]

Additional scrutiny into the vague injuries and insults may accept to do with a uncomplicated matter of Montresor'southward pride and not whatsoever specific words from Fortunato.^[7] Montresor comes from an established family. His house had once been noble and respected, but has fallen slightly in status. Fortunato, as his name would seem to indicate, has been blessed with good fortune and wealth and is, therefore, viewed as unrefined past Montresor; however, this lack of refinement has not stopped Fortunato from surpassing Montresor in club, which could very well be the "insult" motive for Montresor's revenge.^[7]

There is indication that Montresor blames his unhappiness and loss of respect and dignity within society on Fortunato.^[viii] It is easy to ascertain that Fortunato is a Freemason, while Montresor is not, which could exist the source of Fortunato's recent rising into upper class society. Montresor even imparts this blame to Fortunato when he states, "Y'all are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, every bit once I was". This interchanging of fortunes is a suggestion that, since the names Montresor and Fortunato mirror one another, there is a psychological reciprocal identification betwixt victim and executioner.^[8] This identification reciprocity is further suggested when one takes into consideration that Montresor entombs Fortunato in the Montresor family catacombs rather than dispatching him elsewhere in the urban center amidst the chaos of the Carnival. It is with this converging of the two characters that one is able to see the larger symbolism of the Montresor crest – the human foot steps on the snake while the serpent forever has his fangs embedded in the heel.^[8]

Upon further investigation into the true nature of character, double meaning can be derived from the Montresor crest.^[6] It is the position of Montresor to view himself as the owner of the righteous foot that is burdensome the insolent Fortunato snake and his "grand injuries" that progress into insult. A more allegoric meaning of Poe'south places the actors in opposite.^[half-dozen] The blind oaf Fortunato has unintentionally stepped upon the snake in the grass – the sneaky and cunning Montresor – who, as a advantage for this adventitious bruising, sinks his fangs deep into the heel of his offender, forever linking them in a grade of mutual being.^[6]

Though Fortunato is presented every bit a connoisseur of fine wine, his deportment in the story brand that assumption questionable. For case, Fortunato comments on another nobleman being unable to distinguish amontillado from sherry when amontillado is in fact a type of sherry, and treats De Grave, an expensive French vino, with very piddling regard by drinking it in a single gulp. A true wine connoisseur would never sample wine while intoxicated and information technology is implied inside the story that Fortunato is simply an alcoholic. Nether this interpretation, Fortunato might have deserved to be buried alive for wasting a bottle of fine wine.^[nine]

Immurement, a form of imprisonment, commonly for life, in which a person is placed within an enclosed space with no get out, is featured in several other works by Poe, including "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Premature Burial", "The Black True cat", and "Berenice".

Inspiration [edit]

An apocryphal fable holds that the inspiration for "The Cask of Amontillado" came from a story Poe had heard at Castle Isle (South Boston), Massachusetts, when he was a private stationed at Fort Independence in 1827.^[10] Co-ordinate to this legend, he saw a monument to Lieutenant Robert Massie. Historically, Massie had been killed in a sword duel on Christmas Day 1817 by Lieutenant Gustavus Drane, post-obit a dispute during a carte game.^[11] The legend states other soldiers then took revenge on Drane by getting him drunkard, luring him into the dungeon, chaining him to a wall, and sealing him in a vault.^[12] This version of Drane'south demise is imitation; Drane was courtmartialled for the killing and acquitted,^[11] and lived until 1846.^[xiii] A written report of a skeleton discovered on the island may be a confused remembering of Poe'due south major source, Joel Headley's "A Human Congenital in a Wall",^[14] which recounts the author's seeing an immured skeleton in the wall of a church in Italy.^[15] 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 agonized moaning. Poe may have likewise seen like themes in Honoré de Balzac's La Grande Bretèche (Democratic Review, November 1843) or his friend George Lippard'southward The Quaker City, or The Monks of Monk Hall (1845).^[16] Poe may have borrowed Montresor's family motto Nemo me impune lacessit from James Fenimore Cooper, who used the line in The Last of the Mohicans (1826).^[17]

Poe wrote his tale, withal, as a response to his personal rival Thomas Dunn English language. Poe and English had several confrontations, usually revolving effectually literary caricatures of one another. Poe thought that one of English's writings went a bit too far, and successfully sued the other man'due south editors at the New York Mirror for libel in 1846.^[18] That year, English published a revenge-based novel chosen 1844, or, The Power of the S.F. Its plot was convoluted and difficult to follow, only made references to secret societies and ultimately had a principal theme of revenge. It included a character named Marmaduke Hammerhead, the famous author of "The Blackness Crow", who uses phrases like "Nevermore" and "lost Lenore", referring to Poe'southward poem "The Raven". This parody of Poe was depicted equally a boozer, liar, and an abusive lover.

Poe responded with "The Cask of Amontillado", using very specific references to English'south novel. In Poe'due south story, for example, Fortunato makes reference to the secret society of Masons, like to the undercover gild in 1844, and even makes a gesture like to one portrayed in 1844 (information technology was a signal of distress). English had also used an image of a token with a hawk grasping a serpent in its claws, similar to Montresor's coat of arms begetting a foot stomping on a snake – though in this epitome, the ophidian is biting the heel. In fact, much of the scene of "The Cask of Amontillado" comes from a scene in 1844 that takes identify in a subterranean vault. In the end, and then, information technology 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 result, as he had suggested in his essay "The Philosophy of Composition".^[19]

Poe may have also been inspired, at least in function, by the Washingtonian movement, a fellowship that promoted temperance. The group was made up of reformed drinkers who tried to scare people into abnegation from alcohol. Poe may take fabricated a promise to join the movement in 1843 afterward a bout of drinking with the hopes of gaining a political engagement. "The Cask of Amontillado" and then may be a "nighttime temperance tale", meant to shock people into realizing the dangers of drinking.^[20]

Poe scholar Richard P. Benton has stated his belief that "Poe'southward protagonist is an Englished version of the French Montrésor" and has argued forcefully that Poe'south model for Montresor "was Claude de Bourdeille, comte de Montrésor (Count of Montrésor), the 17th-century political conspirator in the entourage of King Louis XIII's weak-willed blood brother, Gaston d'Orléans".^[21] The "noted intriguer and memoir-writer" was first linked to "The Cask of Amontillado" by Poe scholar Burton R. Pollin.^[21] ^[22]

Further inspiration for the method of Fortunato's murder comes from the fright of alive burial. During the fourth dimension period of this short story some coffins were given methods of alerting the outside in the event of live entombment. Items such every bit bells tied to the limbs of a corpse to signal the exterior were not uncommon. This theme is evident in Fortunato's costume of a jester with bells upon his hat, and his situation of live entombment within the catacombs.^[8]

Poe may take known bricklaying through personal experience. Many periods in Poe's life lack significant biographical details, including what he did later on leaving the Southern Literary Messenger in 1837.^[23] Poe biographer John H. Ingram wrote to Sarah Helen Whitman that someone named "Allen" said that Poe worked "in the brickyard 'late in the fall of 1834'". This source has been identified as Robert T. P. Allen, a fellow West Point student during Poe'southward time there.^[24]

Adaptations [edit]

In 1944, the syndicated radio album series The Weird Circle aired an episode based on the story, in which Montresor is depicted as being kidnapped and sold into years of slavery past agents hired past Fortunato, who steals his fiancee and wealth in his absence, every bit motive for entombing Fortunato alive. The author of the accommodation was non credited.
In 1951, EC Comics published an accommodation in Offense Suspenstories #three, nether the title "Blood Red Wine." The adaptation was written by Al Feldstein, with art past Graham Ingels and a encompass past Johnny Craig. The ending was changed from Poe's original to evidence the murderer drown in wine moments after the offense, due to the walled-upward man having shot the vats of wine before existence walled up, while aiming for the human being murdering him by walling him up. It was reprinted in 1993 past Russ Cochran.
In 1951, Gilberton's Classics Illustrated #84 featured a faithful adaptation, with art by Jim Lavery. It has been reprinted multiple times over the years.
In 1953, classical composer Julia Perry wrote a ane act opera based on the story entitled The Bottle.^[25]
In 1959, 'The Cask of Amontillado' was retold through a Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar Episode, entitled The Cask of Death Thing. The episode was circulate on May 24, 1959, and starred Bob Bailey as the eponymous Johnny Dollar.
In 1960, Editora Continental (Brazil) published an adaptation in Classicos De Terror #1 past Gedeone Malagola.
Roger Corman's 1962 anthology film Tales of Terror combines the story with another Poe story, "The Blackness True cat".^[26] This loosely adapted version is incomparably comic in tone, and stars Peter Lorre every bit Montresor (given the proper name Montresor Herringbone) and Vincent Toll as Fortunato Luchresi. The affiliation of the two stories provides a motive for the murderer: Fortunato has an thing with Montresor'southward wife.
In 1970, Vincent Price included a solo recitation of the story in the anthology moving-picture show An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe. The production features Montresor recounting the story to an unseen guest in a vast, empty dining room.
"The Merciful", a 1971 episode of Nighttime Gallery, features the story with a twist: an former couple in a basement, with the wife (Imogene Coca) edifice the wall and quoting from the Poe story, while the husband (King Donovan) sits passively in a rocking chair. In one case she has finished, he gets up from the chair and walks upwards the stairs. The wife has sealed herself in.
In 1974, Skywald did an adaptation in Scream #5. Adaptation by Al Hewetson, art by "Maro Nava" (a possible pseudonym for Jerry Grandenetti). In 1989, this was reprinted by Eternity Comics in Murders In The Rue Morgue #1.
In 1975, CBS Radio Mystery Theater did an extended adaptation which invented new details non original to the story, episode number 203, January 12, 1975.
In 1975, Warren did an adaptation in Creepy #70. Adaptation by Rich Margopoulos, art past Martin Salvador. This has been reprinted multiple times over the years.
In 1976, The Alan Parsons Project released an album titled Tales of Mystery and Imagination with one of the tracks called "The Cask of Amontillado".
"The Cask of Amontillado" was made into a British moving picture in 1998, directed past Mario Cavalli, screenplay by Richard Deakin and starring Anton Blake as Montresor and Patrick Monckton as Fortunato.^[27]
In 2003, Lou Reed included an adaptation on the extended edition of his Poe-themed album The Raven, titled "The Cask" and performed by Willem Dafoe (as Montresor) and Steve Buscemi (as Fortunato).
Edgar Allan Poe'southward The Cask of Amontillado (2011) stars David JM Bielewicz and Frank Tirio, Jr. It was directed by Thad Ciechanowski, produced past Joe Serkoch, past production company DijitMedia, LLC/Orionvega. It was a winner of 2013 regional Emmy Award.^[28]
In 2013, Lance Tait'southward stage adaptation located the activity of the story in Nice, France.^[29]
in 2014, Keith Carradine starred in Terroir, a feature-length film accommodation by John Charles Jopson.
In 2014, the Comedy Bang! Bang! Tv set series included a parody adaptation in a segment titled "Tragedy is Comedy Plus Slime" in their Halloween episode with Wayne Coyne. In this version, Fortunato is kept alive and is paid equally the show's head writer while remaining immured.
The quaternary episode in season 9 American Masters titled Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul adapts the story.^[30]
On October 17, 2017, Udon Entertainment's Manga Classics line published The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe, which included a manga format accommodation of "The Cask of Amontillado". It was planned to release in Spring 2017.^[31]

References [edit]

^ Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. Checkmark Books. p. 45. ISBN0-8160-4161-X.
^ Reynolds, David F. (1993). "Poe'south Fine art of Transformation: 'The Cask of Amontillado' in Its Cultural Context". In Silverman, Kenneth (ed.). The American Novel: New Essays on Poe'southward Major Tales. Cambridge University Printing. p. 101. ISBN0-521-42243-4.
^ "Edgar Allan Poe – 'The Cask of Amontillado'". The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore.
^ ^a ^b Baraban, Elena V. (2004). "The Motive for Murder in 'The Cask of Amontillado' by Edgar Allan Poe". Rocky Mount Review of Linguistic communication and Literature. 58 (two): 47–62. doi:x.2307/1566552. JSTOR 1566552. Archived from the original on 2012-07-fourteen.
^ "The Poe Decoder - "The Cask of Amontillado"". world wide web.poedecoder.com . Retrieved 2020-03-02 .
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^east Stepp, Walter (1976). "The Ironic Double In Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado'". Studies in Short Fiction. thirteen (4): 447.
^ ^a ^b St. John Stott, Graham (Winter 2004). "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado'". Explicator. 62 (ii): 85–88. doi:10.1080/00144940409597179. S2CID 163083602.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Platizky, Roger (Summertime 1999). "Poe'southward 'The Cask of Amontillado'". Explicator. 57 (4): 206. doi:10.1080/00144949909596874.
^ Cecil, L. Moffitt (1972). "Poe'due south Vino Listing". Poe Studies. 5 (2): 41. doi:ten.1111/j.1754-6095.1972.tb00193.10.
^ Bergen, Philip (1990). Old Boston in Early Photographs. Boston: Bostonian Society. p. 106.
^ ^a ^b Vrabel, Jim (2004). When in Boston: a time line & almanac. Northeastern University. ISBN 1-55553-620-iv / ISBN i-555-53621-two p. 105
^ Wilson, Susan (2000). Literary Trail of Greater Boston. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Visitor. p. 37. ISBN0-618-05013-2.
^ "Battery B, 4th U.S. Calorie-free Artillery – Kickoff Lieutenants of the 4th U.South. Artillery".
^ Headley, J. T. (1844). "A Man Congenital in a Wall". Letters from Italian republic. London: Wiley & Putnam. pp. 191–195.
^ Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, editor. Tales and Sketches: Volume 2. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Printing, 2000. p. 1254
^ Reynolds (1993), pp. 94–5.
^ Jacobs, Edward Craney (1976). "Marginalia – A Possible Debt to Cooper". Poe Studies. nine (i): 23. doi:x.1111/j.1754-6095.1976.tb00266.x.
^ Silverman, Kenneth (1991). Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-catastrophe Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial. pp. 312–313. ISBN0-06-092331-8.
^ Rust, Richard D. (2001). "Punish with Impunity: Poe, Thomas Dunn English and 'The Cask of Amontillado'". The Edgar Allan Poe Review. 2 (2): 33–52. JSTOR 41508404.
^ Reynolds (1993), pp. 96–7.
^ ^a ^b Benton, Richard P. (1996). "Poe'due south 'The Cask of Amontillado': Its Cultural and Historical Backgrounds". Poe Studies. 30 (1–two): 19–27. doi:10.1111/j.1754-6095.1997.tb00089.ten.
^ Pollin, Burton R. (1970). "Notre-Dame de Paris in Two of the Tales". Discoveries in Poe . Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. pp. 24–37.
^ Silverman, Kenneth (1991). Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial. pp. 129–130. ISBN0-06-092331-8.
^ Thomas, Dwight; Jackson, David Grand. (1987). The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849. New York: Grand. K. Hall & Co. p. 141. ISBN0-7838-1401-ane.
^ Julia Perry. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
^ Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z: the essential reference to his life and work . New York City: Facts on File. p. 28. ISBN0-8160-4161-Ten. OCLC 44885229.
^ "The Cask of Amontillado (1998)". IMDb. Retrieved 2016-06-17 .
^ "2013 Emmy Winners". www.natasmid-atlantic.org. National Academy of Tv set Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
^ Caridad, Ava (2016). "Lance Tait: The Black Cat and Other Plays: Adapted from Stories by Edgar Allan Poe". The Edgar Allan Poe Review. Penn Land University Press. 17 (1): 66–69. doi:10.5325/edgallpoerev.17.1.0066. JSTOR 10.5325/edgallpoerev.17.1.0066. p. 67.
^ "Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul". IMDb. Retrieved 2016-06-17 .
^ "Udon Ent. to Release Street Fighter Novel, Dragon'due south Crown Manga". Anime News Network. July 21, 2016.

External links [edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Total text in the bound volume of Godey's Lady's Volume, Vol. XXXIII, No. 5, November, 1846, pp. 216-218.
"The Cask of Amontillado" – Total text of the commencement printing, from Godey'due south Lady's Book, 1846
Full text on PoeStories.com with hyperlinked vocabulary words.
Free-to-download MP3 dramatisation of the story (Yuri Rasovsky)
The Cask of Amontillado public domain audiobook at LibriVox
The Cask of Amontillado - Full text in PDF, ePUB and MOBI.