It's not enough that Montresor gains revenge on Fortunato; he has to get away with it as well. So Montresor makes meticulous preparations in ensuring that the sordid details of his dastardly crime will never be revealed.

To that end, he plans to kill Fortunato during the Carnival, when everyone will be too busy having a good time to notice anything suspicious going on. As part of his murder plot, he also makes sure that his servants are out of the house so that no one will notice Fortunato enter. If Montresor gives his servants the day off to enjoy themselves at the Carnival it won't look strange.

Also, Montresor plays upon Fortunato's vanity as a self-proclaimed wine connoisseur. He knows that Fortunato won't be able to resist the very special cask of wine he has waiting for him down in the catacombs. Once again, Monstresor's set everything up to make sure that nothing appears suspicious or out of the ordinary.

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is about a man who murders his friend in revenge. The narrator of the story, Montresor, is angry with Fortunato because of an unknown insult. In order to murder Fortunato, there are a few things that Montresor must do in preparation. These include preparing chains on the wall of a niche in the catacombs to tie Fortunato up with, hiding brick and mortar nearby to entomb Fortunato’s body in the niche, keeping a trowel hidden on himself to use with the brick and mortar, getting Fortunato inebriated so he is less suspicious of Montresor’s actions and less resistant when he chains him to the wall, and getting Fortunato alone so no one will hear him cry for help.

As we can tell from the first paragraph, Montresor has been wanting to kill Fortunato for some time.  We are not really sure why, and Fortunato does not really seem to know either.  But for some reason, Montresor really wants revenge quite badly.  Here are three things that he does to prepare to get his revenge:

• He tricks all his servants into leaving the mansion completely empty that night.
• He puts stone and mortar under the bones.
• He has those two staples in the wall and the chains and the locks all ready to go.