The Cask Of Amontillado – Summary Of Short Story By Edgar Allan Poe
THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO – In this topic, we are going to know and read the full summary of The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe.
Also spelled The Casque of Amontillado, it is a well-known short story written by American writer, poet, editor, and critic Edgar Allan Poe.
The story took place in an unnamed city in Italyt and it is about a man who took a deadly revenge on his friend who he thinks insulted him.
Here is the summary of the story:
Montresor, the narrator, tells the story of an unknown person, who knows him well, of the day he made revenge on a fellow nobleman named Fortunato. Furious of the number of injuries and some unspecified insult, he aims to kill his friend during Carnival while he is drunk, dizzy, and wearing a jester’s motley.
He lured Fortunato into a private wine-testing excursion by telling him he found a pipe of what he thinks is a rare vintage of Amontillado. He proposed gaining information of the contents by inviting a fellow wine expert, Luchesi, for a private testing. He knew Fortunado will be unable to resist showing his discerning palate for wine and will insist that he taste the amontillado rather than Luchesi, who claims that Luchesi cannot distinguish Amontillado from Sherry.
He went with Montresor to the wine cellars of his palazzo, where they wander in the catacombs. He offered his wines to Fortunato, who had a bad cough, to keep him inebriated. He further warned his friend of the dampness and suggest they return but Fortunato insisted that he shall not die of a cough. Montressor mentions his family coat of arms: a golden foot in a blue background crushing a snake whose fangs are embedded in the foot’s heel, with the motto “No one attacks me with impunity” (Nemo me impune lacessit).
Fortunato made an elaborate, grotesque gesture with an upraised wine bottle, which Montresor did not recognize. Fortunato asked if he was not one of the masons, which the latter replied he is. Unconvinced, Fortunato asked for a sign, which Montresor did by displaying a trowel he had been hiding. Upon arriving to a niche, he told his victim that the Amontillado is within. Fortunato enters drunk, unsuspecting and did not resist as Montresor trapped him to the wall. Montresor, sure that Fortunato won’t go back, said that he must “positively leave” him there.
He revealed brick and mortar and began walling up the niche using his trowel, entombing his friend alive. Fortunato, sobering up quickly, shakes the chains, trying to escape, then screams for help. Montresor mocked his cries. Fortunato weakly and tries to pretend that he is the subject of a joke and that people will be waiting for him.
As Montresor finishes the wall, Fortunato says “For the love of God, Montresor!” to which Montresor replies, “Yes, for the love of God!” He listens for a reply but only hears the jester bells ringing. Before placing the top stone, he drops a burning torch through the gap. Montressor claims that he feels feels sick at heart, but dismisses this reaction as an effect of the dampness of the catacombs.
The narrator said that 50 years later, Fortunato’s body still hangs from its chains in the niche where he left it, where he concludes: In pace requiescat! (“May he rest in peace!”).
