Introduction

The Cask of Amontillado is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and was published in the year 1847. The books main characters are Fortunato and Montresor. It revolves around a revenge story between the two where Montresor vows to get his payback from Fortunato who insulted him and left him in a lot of furies. Many stylistic devices have been used to write the story by Edgar Allan Poe to make sure that the book had a sequence and flow from the beginning to the end. Additionally, the plot of the book does not confuse the reader where one can understand the full cast of the book with ease. Edgar Allan Poe employed some themes in the writing of the book to enable him to create his story around them ad to capture the reader’s attention.

Plotting and content of the book

Initial Situation

The book begins with the vows of an insult and the situation of anger from the two main characters. Montresor is insulted by Fortunato and this he does not take light which results to him gaining the urge to do some revenge on his friend. This was not the beginning of the conflict between the two, and it dates from some few years back. In the past, Fortunato had hurt the Montresormuch time, but he would not react at all and always remained quiet(Allan 1). However this round he went too much, and Montresor did not take it lightly leading to revenge.

Conflict

After the insults, it was time to lay out a plan on how to do his revenge to perfection. Montresor began evaluating ways on how he would revenge and make his friend feel it on a permanent base. The insults touched him a lot, and he had to formulate an action of revenge that would touch Fortunato equally as he hurt him with the insults.

Complication

There were no many complications in the revenge plan where he first identified that Fortunato was in love with wine and he decided to use it to lure him. Montresor timed and waited for the carnival season to come when people would wear jesters and other costumes which made them look different from themselves. While Fortunato was drunk,Montresor lured him to follow him down an underground graveyard. He was tricked easily and did not realize he was going into a trap until it was too late.

Climax

Montresor introduced the story of Luchesi while down there, and the half-drunk Fortunato calls Luchesi an ignoramus, and that’s where it all broke hell (Allan 4). He is chained in a casket in the deepest part of the catacomb to be forgotten for good.

Denouement

This comes after Fortunato is chained in the casket and is left helpless inside there. To make sure he does not come out, he decides to seal the area using bricks and enclose him in there for good. Fortunato watches helplessly as he put on the final brick to the seal of the catacomb. This was an indication that when used up the air inside there he would suffocate and die.

Conclusion

At the end of the story, we find Montresor narrating this story to a priest while he is old. This was an indication that the revenge mission was something that he did many years ago and was narrating and regretting his actions to Fortunato(Allan 10). This also shows the reader that he was never punished for his actions since no one got to know of his actions. In the last part of the story, he indicated that at the time of confession it was already fifty years later and it was during his last days on earth.

Writing Stylistic Devices

Symbolism

One of the images in the book is that of the picture of the shield which is symbolic in different ways. In the picture, there is a giant human foot which is in a blue field. The giant field is in a way clashing on the head of a serpent(Allan 6). This is symbolic where Fortunato is the serpent, and the giant foot is Montresor who will eventually cause his death. The motto of Montresor’s family “Nemo me impunelacessit” is also symbolic. It is a Scottish phrase that means that no one attacks me with impunity. This is the primary cause of revenge where the impunity is the insults that Montresor receives from Fortunato.

Suspense

Edgar Allan Poe also uses the style of suspense to write his story. The narration that is between the time Montresor starts to trick Fortunato up until he lures him and closes him in the catacomb creates a lot of suspense to the reader. One is left wanting to know what will happen next and with the urge to know whether Fortunato will fall for the trick or not. Another incidence of suspense is during the building of the brick wall by Montresor after managing to cage Fortunato in a casket. Fortunato watches with suspense as the wall is built hoping that Montresor is only joking and will soon set him free. Unluckily this does not happen, and he is let inside the cave to die.

Flashback

Flashback is another writing style that the author of the book uses in the entire short story. Flashback involves a person narrating or trying to remember some activities or events that sometimes happened back in time. He uses the first person to narrate the entire proceedings on how he got his revenge to Fortunato. As he tells the story, it was already fifty years later after the incident, and he was only telling it as it happened back then. He was confessing to a priest of his deeds and showed a lot of regrets now that he was an old man and his time on earth was about to end.

Themes in the Book

Theme of drugs and alcohol

Were it not for the wine that the two of the main characters seemed to consume, and there is a high probability that Fortunato would not have been tricked to his death by Montresor. Drugs and alcohol are more evident in the book where during the carnival festival everyone seems to be enjoying themselves with wine until Fortunato becomes drunk(Allan 5). From this point was when he followed Montresor and with their mood of jokes due to the effects of the wine he is chained in the casket in an underground graveyard.

Theme of Mortality

The whole book seems to be an example of a horror story or a horror movie to the person who reads it. This is because the writer fills his narration with fixations on death, corpses, and bones. As the two characters were heading down the catacomb, there were skulls and bones of dead people all over the path that they used. This showed that death was a central theme in the story and it was the main reason as to why the author used a graveyard as the final meeting place between Montresor and Fortunato. However, to encourage the reader to continue reading the story, the author uses a lot of humor to remove the fear and make the book enjoyable.

Theme of Foolishness and Folly

The whole short story revolves around the foolishness between the two main characters Montresor and Fortunato. One act of foolishness can lead to someone’s death, and this theme is well demonstrated in the book. Fortunato demonstrates his arrogance and lack of knowledge in matters of wine and this is what Montresor takes advantage of to have his revenge(Allan 8). On the other hand, Montresor at the end of the book shows his folly where he shows regret and confesses that his actions are something that he may never want to be involved in again.

Theme of Freedom and Confinement

As Montresor plans to kill and have his revenge on Fortunato, the primary mission for him was to have freedom from the pains that have been caused to him all along. After he killed and completed the mission, he felt he was free and took a breath of relief from the pain he was caused for a while. However, at the end of the story we get to find out that this did not happen and all he has are regrets and confinements. Montresor feels so much guilt to the extent that he decided to confess his actions after a long time.

Conclusions

The short story “The Cask of Amontillado” uses a lot of stylistic devices in narration to make sure that the reader gets the whole plot of the story. For a book to be entertaining and to be able to educate the reader it must have a flow, clearly state it themes and also use a language that is understandable in terms of sentence structure and formulation. These are some of the aspects that Edgar Allan Poe used and made sure that his story delivered his intended message to the reader. Lastly, one of the main lessons from the story is that sometimes revenge may come back to haunt a person just like what happened to Montresor after he killed Fortunato.

References

Poe, Edgar Allan. The cask of Amontillado. The Creative Company, 2008. Retrieved from             https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Amontillado.pdf

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