Amontillado Essay, Research Paper

In Edgar Allan Poe s short story The Cask of Amontillado , an insane narrator tells

how he devises and carries out his plot of revenge. His victim is a former friend who

goes by the name Fortunato who has unknowingly insulted the narrator. The narrator s

plan is to lure Fortunato down into the depths of his family s catacomb and kill him.

The narrator decides that the best time to put his plan into action would be during the

carnival season. He tells his servants not to leave knowing that the temptation of the

carnival season was too much for the servants to listen. Once his servants have cleared

the house the narrator waits for Fortunato to arrive. Fortunato arrives and then learns that

the narrator has purchased a large quantity of Amontillado wine and needs someone to

verify that he has indeed purchased Amontillado. The narrator suggests that another

wine tester try the wine knowing that Fortunato s deep prides in his knowledge of wines

would push him into insisting that he be the one to test it. Several times the narrator

suggests that they turn back but this just feeds Fortunato s determination.

Midway through their journey through the catacombs Fortunato makes note of the

order of the Masons, a elite society, to which the narrator reveals a trowel. Fortunato

takes it as a joke and they continue on.

As they reach their destination, the narrator tells Fortunato that the wine is stowed

inside of a niche at the very end of the catacomb. Once Fortunato is inside of the niche,

the narrator secures Fortunato to the wall using a chain. The narrator then begins to erect

a wall using building supplies that he had previously hauled down and covered with some

bones. While building Fortunato let s out a scream to which the narrator, at first worried

someone might hear but is reassured by the thickness of the walls, screams even louder

than Fortunato. He goes back to building and some time later Fortunato begins rattling

his chains. The narrator once again stops to gloat at his accomplishment. Just as he

finishes the wall he hears the jingling of the bell on Fortunato s hat which signifies his

death. The narrator quickly puts in the last brick and places the bones up against the new

wall and he leaves the catacombs.

He s gotten away with the revenge for 50 years, but he s not gotten away from his

guilt.