Cask of Amontillado Summary

The Cask of Amontillado is a short horror story written by Edgar Allan Poe. It is about the main character, Montresor, re-telling how he murdered Fortunato, a nobleman, because of an insult. The story starts off Montresor describing Fortunato. Then it transitions to the start of the actual plot. Montresor meets Fortunato in a carnival and finds him drunk and dizzy. He tells Fortunato that he has attained a cask of amontillado, which is a very rare wine. Montresor claims that he wants his professional opinion on the wine, since Fortunato is a wine connoisseur.  He then leads Fortunato to his catacombs, in which he claims the wine is placed. As they travel down the catacombs, Montresor gives Fortunato more wine, in order to drunken him more. When they drink the wine, Fortunato does a strange gesture, which is described as a Mason sign. Montresor points out that there is nitre in the walls, which is harmful to breathe over long periods of time. When they reach a certain point, Montresor randomly chains up Fortunato to the wall. He then starts to build a wall to lock up Fortunato. Fortunato screams very loudly, in which Montresor micks him, exclaiming that no one can hear them. As Montresor places the final brick on the wall, he places a torch through to have a final look at his victim. After, Montresor claims to the person he is telling the story that in the 50 years since it occurred, he has never been caught.

Personally, this is a very interesting story mainly because it is told from the murderer’s perspective. The murderer, Montresor, describes the event in detail, detailing how he carefully plotted the plan. The author’s intent on writing this story is to provide an authentic perspective made by a murderer, on the contrary to the usual perspective being one from a detective or victim. The main pattern of organization is chronological order, in which the story’s events are told in order of occurrence.