The Cask of Amontillado

Summary: The story begins with Montresor, the narrator, saying how he had been injured by Fortunato “thousands” of times, but when he was insulted by him, he wanted revenge. He decided to use Fortunato’s weak point, fine wines, against him, since Fortunato prided himself on his connoisseurship of wine. So, one day during the carnival season, Montresor sees Fortunato and tells him that he has a pipe of what he believes is Amontillado and would like him to come try it to see if it is. Montresor tells him that if he is busy or his cough is too bad, he can ask Luchresi, but Fortunato says that “Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry,” and he will be able to go. They start out for Montresor’s house since the wine is in the vaults of his house. None of the servants are home since it is the carnival season and Montresor gave them off and told them not to come back until the morning; so he could get his revenge without them knowing. As they walk through the catacombs, Fortunato’s cough gets worse and worse and Montresor repeatedly asks him if he wants to go back, but Fortunato refuses. Montresor also keeps giving Fortunato more alcohol as they continue to walk through the labrynthic catacombs to get him drunk. When they finally got to the wine, Fortunato began to drink it and as he did, Montresor began to build a brick wall at the entrance to the niche. After he finished the first tier though, he noticed that Fortunato wasn’t as drunk as he though he would be. He began to speed up and built up the wall more and more until he was almost done and Fortunato got to the wall. Fortunato took it as a joke and told him to take it down, but he didn’t and kept going until he had only one more brick to put in. At this point, Montresor tossed the torch in and put the last brick in.

Characters: Montresor: The owner of the Amontillado who uses it to get revenge on Fortunato, the man who insulted him. He lures Fortunato into his family’s vaults and then traps him by building a brick wall.

Fortunato: The man who injured Montresor “thousands” of times and insulted him hence causing his death because Montresor took revenge on him. He is esteemed as a connisseur of fine wines and is taking part in the “madness of the carnival season” and is lured into the vaults because he is quite drunk.

Luchresi: He is never actually in the story, but is mentioned because Montresor offers to ask him about the wine if Fortunato is too busy.

Gothic Elements: The Gothic elements in this story come simply from the fact that it takes place mostly at night in the dark and also in the dark, eerie catacombs at Montresor’s house where his family members are buried.

Word Count: 492