The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

¶ … Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe's short story - The Cask of Amontillado - is a violent tale of retaliation. The story's evil narrator, Montresor, vows to take revenge on Fortunato for offending him. In his opinion, his thirst for revenge is completely acceptable, in line with his notions of personal pride and reputation. Yet, he is aware of the fact that his action will be considered wrongful by the public, as evidenced in the tale's ending -- Montresor narrates his story as retribution (in a way). He aims at exacting vengeance in keeping with his family's motto, which appears on their crest: "Nemo me impune lacessit" (translated as "No one attacks me with impunity.") The crest depicts "a huge human foot d'or, in a field of azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are embedded in the heel." To Montresor, it was imperative that his victim, Fortunato, be aware of what is taking place. The killer would revel in his nemesis perishing slowly, while "the thought of his rejected opportunities of escape will sting him with unbearable regret, and as he sobers with terror, the final blow will come from the realization that his craving for the wine has led him to his doom" (Womack).

Analysis

Right from the beginning, the author captures readers' attention by plunging right into the tale -- his opening words are "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge." The reader has virtually no knowledge of characters' backgrounds -- their age, family members (i.e., whether they are married, whether they have kids, etc.) and their appearance. In fact, the reader has no clue even as to the place and time of occurrence of the narrative, although the victim's name (i.e., Fortunato) and the mention of a palazzo suggest the story may be set in Italy. The closing sentence, which states that the victim has remained moldering for fifty years within the tomb, leads one to conclude that Fortunato and Montresor were young when the horrific incident occurred. From this, one can assume that the incident occurred during or before the 18th century's ending. As regards the two characters' nature, Montresor informs readers that his victim was fearsome as well as highly regarded; his sole weakness was the pride he took in his superior knowledge of wines. This vanity with regard to a matter as trivial as wine becomes incongruously disproportionate, leading Fortunato right into Montresor's ghastly trap (eNotes).

As in several stories written by Poe, the terror in this tale lies in the absence of proof accompanying Montresor's claims that Fortunato inflicted a "thousand injuries" upon him and insulted him. The tale uses revenge and clandestine murder as the means to evade legal retribution avenues. Law does not appear anywhere on the author's or his narrator's radar screen -- the narrative's enduring horror is its infliction of vengeance without any proof. The villain, through his one-sided experience of his victim's 'insult', names himself jury, judge, and executioner -- this fact makes the narrator an unreliable one. He owns up to his horrific crime an entire half-century after he committed it. The passage of such a considerable amount of time from the incident's occurrence to his narration renders even greater unreliability to the tale. His unreliability prevails over the rational attention to evidence (for instance, certain incidents of insult which would certainly precede any condemnation outside of Poe's world). This particular story takes the fact of biased interpretation -- that every person will interpret any given thing in his own unique way -- to a ghastly conclusion (Spark Notes).

Lewis claims that "The Cask of Amontillado" refers to the author's penchant for word play and allusions. He goes on to suggest that readers face the biggest conundrum in the name of Poe's sherry -- the so-called amontillado, copied from the Spanish Montilla wine, made in Jerez de la Frontera (a town in Spain). Paying attention to paronomasia and etymology, the author undoubtedly picked that specific sherry, owing to the potential for punning imbedded in the wine's associations or its name itself. This would add to the tale's overall effect. Construing the term 'amontillado' to be related to ammontare (an Italian noun meaning amount or sum) offers a more effective pun compared to those suggested before now. On this perspective, although the villain ultimately seals his victim's grave, thus giving the latter the bill or the check or the final account, the account has never been closed completely -- it remains open much beyond the story's end owing to the villain's guilt. One may understand the above interpretation and concur with the fact that emphasizing the text's puns adds to the tale's overall effect. Therefore, one may consider the signified wine to be a part of a comprehensive conceit, which underscores the link between Montresor's manipulation of his victim and the process of preparation and refining of amontillado (Lewis).

According to Platizky, being interred alive is a threat that is an old reality as well as a psychological concern. The author has made the most of this threat in the tale in question. To a great extent, the author's fear of this horrific occurrence had a counterpart in 18th and 19th century culture. A number of literary works set in the period depict concerns regarding premature burial in Europe and America, chiefly because doctors typically decided whether an individual was 'dead' and funerals became secularized. To prevent living entombments, crypts and coffins, particularly for the elite, had special sounding devices and springs that afforded mistakenly buried individuals a chance at being rescued.

Among the more practical of these rescue devices was the placement of chimes on the deceased's limbs. Life-preserving caskets featured a death-eluding mechanism in which a cord fastened to the corpse's hand would trigger an external alarm even at the smallest amount of movement. While a creative variant of this -- the dinging bells on the jester's cap spotted by the victim has been ironically deployed in the end -- the bells, in no way, help resurrect the buried jester except, possibly, in the live memory of his killer's revenge.

As Montresor plays the role of executioner when walling up his victim, it is a fact worth bearing in mind that, at one time, live burial constituted one of the practiced forms of European capital punishment. It represented a social purification rite and, particularly during the 16th century, this harsh punishment was meted out to those found guilty of grand personal property thefts and sexual offenses. While no tangible proof exists of Fortunato perpetrating any of the above two crimes, Montresor hints that his Freemason enemy is to blame for his lost respect, social standing, happiness, and love, through the following words: "You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was." He contemptuously and mockingly twists justice, apparently for God's love (Platizky).