The Cask of Amontillado Plot Analysis with examples

The Cask of Amontillado Plot Analysis

Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.

Initial Situation

An insult, and a vow of revenge

Fortunato and Montresor have a history, and a painful one at that. Fortunato has wounded Montresor a “thousand” times. Montresor never complains. But one day, Fortunato goes too far: he insults Montresor, and Montresor vows revenge.

Conflict

How to make things right – forever

For Montresor to revenge himself for Fortunato’s insult, he has to get away with it – if Fortunato can revenge him back, then Montresor has lost. The punishment must be permanent − Fortunato has to feel it, and he has to know it’s coming from Montresor.

Complication

It’s almost too easy…

There really isn’t much complication. After a few carefully dropped hints from Montresor (think “Amontillado” and “Luchesi”), Fortunato insists on following Montresor down into the underground graveyard of your worst nightmares. Montresor baits him and plays with him, but Fortunato never considers turning back until it’s way too late.

Climax

Trapped in a conveniently man-sized space!

Montresor brings up Luchesi, Fortunato calls Luchesi an “ignoramus,” and boom! He’s chained inside an upright casket in the foulest depths of the catacomb! That’s the story’s big, explosive moment.

Suspense

Brick by brick by brick…

Montresor is building a wall of suspense, especially if you are Fortunato. Fortunato’s watching himself being bricked in, waiting, breathlessly to see if this is some kind of really creepy carnival joke.

Denouement

The final brick

After Montresor puts in the final brick, the suspense is dissolved. He’s heard the pitiful jingle of Fortunato’s bells, and it means nothing to him. As soon as the air is used up in the tiny brick casket, Fortunato will be dead.

Conclusion

Looking back

It’s impossible to know how old Montresor is when he kills Fortunato, but in the second to the last line of the story, we learn that the murder happened fifty years ago. So Montresor is probably pushing eighty when he’s telling the story. And he could be far more ancient. More importantly, this conclusion lets us know that Montresor has gotten away with his crime so far. His vengeance has been a success, and he wants us to know it.

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The Cask of Amontillado Theme of Freedom and Confinement

The contrast between freedom and confinement is extreme in “The Cask of Amontillado.” For one character to be free, another must die. Most of the story takes place in a vast and incredibly foul smelling catacomb, or underground graveyard. Dead bodies (or at least bones) abound. Freedom becomes less and less of a possibility as the characters move into smaller and smaller crypts, each one more disgusting than the last. Such confinement makes both the readers and the characters appreciate the deliciousness of fresh air. Hopefully, it makes us, the readers, think more deeply about what makes us feel trapped, and what makes us feel free.

Questions About Freedom and Confinement

1. Is Montresor free at the end of the story? If so, why do you think so? If you think he’s trapped, why?
2. Did Fortunato ever really have a chance to escape? If so, when? If there was a moment when it became too late for Fortunato to get away, when do you think it was?
3. How does this story comment on psychological freedom and psychological confinement?
4. Who is more psychologically trapped, Fortunato or Montresor? Why?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

Even though Fortunato dies and Montresor lives, Fortunato is still the freer character of the two

The Cask of Amontillado Theme of Betrayal

Betrayal drives the action in “The Cask of Amontillado." One character’s betrayal sets off a hideous chain of retribution, enacted below ground in a mass grave. Behind all this revenge and death, the story is about trust. Without trust there can be no betrayal. The story has much to do with the lengths human being will go to feel better when they feel betrayed – and the tragedy that comes when those lengths hit murderous extremes.

Questions About Betrayal

1.    Montresor doesn’t describe exactly how Fortunato betrayed him. Do you think this matters to the story? Is there anything Fortunato could have done to deserve that punishment?

2.    If Montresor was indeed betrayed by Fortunato, do you think this means he once trusted him? Do you have to trust someone before they can betray you?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

Fortunato betrays himself by not paying enough attention to his surroundings.

The Cask of Amontillado Theme of Drugs and Alcohol

The only literal drug we see in “The Cask of Amontillado” is wine. But there are many other drugs circulating between the lines. “Drugs,” in this story, can be anything the characters want badly enough to do awful or foolish things for. The story’s author, Edgar Allan Poe, struggled with drugs and alcohol. His struggle is carefully woven into this complicated narrative, which can be read as a gruesome allegory for addiction.

Questions About Drugs and Alcohol

1.    What is Montresor addicted to, if anything, in the story?

2.    What about Fortunato? Don’t restrict yourself to the obvious.

3.    What do you think of the first sentence of paragraphs 76 and 77? If Fortunato isn’t drunk any more, then unless Montresor snuck some wine and didn’t tell us, Montresor is sober, too. Why does Montresor take his torture of Fortunato to a new level when they are both sober?

4.    Is the story trying to tell us something about drugs and/or alcohol? If so, what are some of the possible messages?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

Pride is a drug in “The Cask of Amontillado.”

Fortunato is addicted to wine; but Montresor has his drinking under control.

The Cask of Amontillado Theme of Mortality

“The Cask of Amontillado” has a frightening fixation on death, corpses, and bones. Edgar Allan Poe’s last short story, written only a few years before his death, is a precise and compact expression of anxieties concerning mortality. But don’t worry – Poe injects plenty of humor into all the doom and gloom. And in the end, we all feel a little happier to be alive.

Questions About Mortality

1.    Does “The Cask of Amontillado” make you think about your own mortality? If so, what are some of the thoughts it provokes?

2.    Why do you think Montresor chooses that specific way to kill Fortunato? If he had stabbed Fortunato instead, or fed him some poisonous wine, how might the story be different?

3.    How do you feel about the descriptions of the Montresor family catacomb, and the crypts within it? Do you get clear images, or are things murky? Either way, how does this contribute to or detract from the story as a whole?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

It’s ironic that, for Montresor to enjoy his own life, he has to take Fortunato’s.

The Cask of Amontillado Theme of Foolishness and Folly

In “The Cask of Amontillado” foolishness and folly can cost you your life. The story amplifies human foolishness and folly to extremes so hideous and cruel they become vices. ”The Cask” only has two characters. By the end of the story, their combined silliness culminates in tragedy and pain for them both. The tragedy is what makes us think more profoundly about their foolish ways – in the hopes that we can avoid ending up, even in some metaphorical way, like them.

Questions About Foolishness and Folly

1.    Is Montresor a foolish character? If so, how? If not, why?

2.    Does Montresor make mistakes? If so, what are they?

3.    Montresor tells us that Fortunato’s one weakness is arrogance about his knowledge of wine. It’s this flaw that makes Fortunato vulnerable to Montresor’s Amontillado strategy. What other possible weaknesses in Fortunato’s character lead to his death? If you had to choose his biggest flaw, which would you choose, and why?

4.    Fortunato is dressed like a fool, or a court jester. Is he simply a fool, or are there some aspects of his personality that contrast with his fool’s image?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

Montresor is the real fool in the story

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