In one of Edgar Allen Poe’s best-known Tales of horror, “The Cask Of Amontillado,” he suggests that pride can be a very dangerous thing. Poe presents the compelling drama of two men, one who will stop at nothing to get the revenge that he deems himself and his family worthy of, and another who’s pride will ultimately be the catalyst for his death. Fortunato falls prey to Montresor’s plans because he is so proud of his connoisseurship of wine, and it is for the sake of his own pride that Montresor takes revenge on Fortunato. In this essay I will examine how Poe utilizes plot elements, style, narration, setting, theme, symbolization, and literary devices in order to create such a horrific and suspenseful masterpiece.

“The Cask of Amontillado” weaves all the plot elements together in such a way as to keep a readers attention throughout the entire story without wanting to put it down. This story starts its inciting incident with the Montresor meeting his friend Fortunato seeking revenge “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge… It was about dusk, one evening during

In the end you never find out what Fortunato’s insult was that would drive Montresor to such insanity to kill a person. The Montresor’s coat of arms and family motto is a foot stepping on a snake and the snake in a field of azure with its fangs in the heel, accompanied with the phrase “Nemo me impune lacessit,” “no one assail me with impunity” (Jerome B et al.72). meaning I (Montresor) will get revenge. The reason Montresor is able to recall all the events so vividly is due to the fact that the murder has been eating at him since the events unraveled. Finally, the free masons (an international secret society of nobles, one who builds with stone) role in the story was to humiliate Montresor and play the role of ironic tone because a trough in the end will wall Fortunato up.

Poe also implemented styles of realism and gothic into this story. Realism is defined as making the story and events come to real life within the reader’s head, or something that is not too far beyond belief. This story, when read in its entirety, seems not too far from reality and sounds like an event that might have actually occurred even though the reader knows its fiction. To further implement this idea the characters have no super human powers or strengths, they seem to be average people “”My friend, no. It is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted. The vaults are insufferably damp. They are encrusted with nitre.”… These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned… He turned towards me, and looked into my eves with two filmy orbs that distilled the rheum of intoxication…a succession of loud and shrill screams” (Jerome B et al. 70-74). The masons was a club any well off man could have been in “You? Impossible! A mason” (Jerome B et al. 72)? The gothic style was that of a particular time period from around 500 A.D. till around 1600 A.D. this implanted in a story would remind you of the middle ages “It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season” (Jerome B et al. 70).

Some topics in this essay:
Cask Amontillado”, Climax Occurs, Moreover Montresor, De Grave, et al, jerome et, jerome et al, “the cask amontillado”, et al 70, “the cask, cask amontillado”, al 70, Allen Poe’s, et al 72, al 72, , dusk evening, al 71, et al 71, al 74, lacessit” “no, Edgar Allen,