a court jester, alive in the Montresor family catacombs. The conflict has been resolved most firmly in Montresor's favor. At long last, he has his revenge.

A conflict derives from a motivation. Whatever makes it difficult to fulfill the motivation is what provides the conflict. The driving motivation in this story is Montresor's desire for revenge. He must induce Fortunato to accompany him into his underground vaults. But this presents many difficulties because Montresor does not want to be suspected of the murder he intends to commit. Fortunato is dressed in a conspicuous costume and even has bells on his cap to attract more attention. The story is largely about the problems, or conflicts, Montresor has with getting his victim down below and chaining him to the wall. The conflict would be the same in any story in which a man wanted to commit a crime and not get caught and punished. I am remindeded of James Thurber's story "The Catbird Seat." It might be said that the confict is about man against man (Montresor versus Fortunato), but it might also be said that the confict is about man against men (Montresor against society). There are many "perfect crime" stories in which the protagonist gets caught. (Poe wrote several, including "The Telltale Heart.) "The Cask of Amontillado" is a "perfect crime" story in which the protagonist/perpetrator does not get caught.

The main conflict in the story is between Montresor and Fortunato. Montresor, our narrator, believes that Fortunato has "inflicted a thousand insults," upon him. It is because of these "insults", which are not named in the story, that Montresor begins to execute his plot for revenge. This conflict would be man versus man, but it is interesting because it seems that Montresor is the only one of the two who is aware of the conflict. Fortunato believes wholeheartedly that the two are friends.

The other conflict we see in the story is man versus self. As Montresor places the final brick into the wall he feels sick for a moment. He tells us it is nothing, but he is an unreliable narrator too. He feels sick, for a moment, with guilt at what he is doing. His revenge plot did not give him the immediate sense of satisfaction he was hoping for and so we see an internal struggle, for but a moment, but it is there.  

The major conflicts are revenge and forgiveness. Montresor feels he must kill Fortunato in his lust for revenge. He dreams of the many ways that he can accomplish this, and relishes the idea of Fortunato realizing his death is at the hands of Montresor.

Yet, fifty years later, Montresor is still struggling with his success in killing him. It seems he is showing contrition for his crime, and since Fortunato is dead, it must be that he is pleading to God for forgiveness.

The internal conflict in "The Cask of Amontillado" besets Montresor and may be described as the conflict of character against self, while the external conflict is a subtle one between Montresor and Fortunato and may be described as character against character.

Montresor's internal conflict has two aspects and has developed because he has received an unspecified "thousand injuries" and an insufferable "insult" from Fortunato, who seems completely unaware of (or blindly calloused to) all this injury and insult. One aspect of Montresor's internal conflict concerns bearing with the affront and insult until his "vowed revenge" might be enacted: "I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge." The conflict here stems from feigning "good will" and deferring punishment. 

The other aspect of his internal conflict concerns devising the perfect plan of revenge that might deflect any "idea of risk" away from himself: Montresor wanted a plan of such a nature that would ensure he wouldn't get caught: "I must not only punish but punish with impunity." The conflict here comprises thinking, thinking, thinking of the perfect way to punish him and protect himself. Both aspects of Montresor's internal conflict are nicely illustrated by this line:

I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation.

In this conflict, Montresor's internal focus was on bearing up and finding just the right plan to deliver at just the right time in just the right way so as to punish, to be the acknowledged avenger and to escape "retribution" for his deed.

A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.  

Montresor's external conflict, the subtle conflict between Montresor and Fortunato, was subtle because Montresor must keep up the subterfuge of "good will" so that he might win Fortunato's cooperation in his plan of vengeance. The plan necessitated luring Fortunato, under the guise of friendship, to a deep, dark place of entombment where Montresor could ridicule Fortunato (with the proffered Amontillado) and be rid of him in a manner that would properly assuage his desire for vengeance after having been wronged. That plan, the story tells us, was to wall Fortunato up alive, then walk away as his own "heart grew sick on account of the dampness of the catacombs." In one stroke, Montresor has thus conquered his foe and his external conflict.

I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones.

The man vs. man conflict in this story is that of our protagonist and narrator, Montressor, behaving in conflict with his victim, Fortunato.

Fortunato's fate is first foreshadowed for the reader by his somewhat ironic name, which contains the root word "fortune." We do not know until the end of the story that this "fortune" is not a positive one, but rather, his own death, the most absolute and negative fate of all.

The story itself is one centered upon the idea of avenging past perceived wrongs, as Montressor is bent upon murdering Fortunato for the "thousand injuries" that Montressor alleges Fortunato has carried out upon him. We as readers are left to infer what those injuries may be, and to determine how severe or slight they actually were.

It's Montressor (the narrator and protagonist) vs. Fortunato (the victim and antagonist).

The problem is...we don't know what Fortunato has done, if anything, to initiate the conflict.  Montressor says that he has born a "thousand injuries."  The reader, therefore, must deduce that, since Fortunato so willingly goes into the catacombs with Montressor and does not pick up on all the signs of his impending doom, that the "thousand injuries" must have been either invented or so trivial that an otherwise sane person would have not taken offense to them.

This is a revenge story, similar to the one in Othello between Iago and Othello.  There too we do not know the reason Iago seeks revenge on his lord.  So, in each story, the motive is questionable.  It may be that Iago and Montressor are simply vice characters: they represent what Coleridge called a "motiveless malignancy."  These narrators are pure evil to the core, but they are so charming about it so as not to breed suspicion.

It is also evident that Montressor comes from an honor culture, one that prides itself on family and personal repuation.  Fortunato might have been from a family that had done the Montressors wrong in the past, and only now is the narrator seeking revenge.

In the first paragraph of the story Montresor states:

At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely, settled—but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk.

This defines the problem or conflict. It is solely a question of executing his planned revenge. The whole story is about how Montresor lures Fortunato underground, walls him up, and leaves him to die. Montresor's conflict, or problem, is with his intended victim. He has to plan his revenge carefully and then execute it perfectly. His conflict is with a boisterous drunkard who has to be kept intoxicated and cunningly manipulated every step of the way to his place of execution. The conflict is resolved when Montresor finally guides Fortunato into the narrow recess, wraps the chains around his waist, and fastens the padlock.

Throwing the links about his waist, it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it. He was too much astounded to resist. Withdrawing the key I stepped back from the recess.

This is the climax. Fortunato is as good as dead. The conflict which began when Montresor encountered Fortunato up on the street is now resolved.

In Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," nearly every part of Montressor's plan of revenge goes according to schedule, so there are not too many complications from his angle.  The only real snag is for the reader, as we are not in on the plan from the beginning.  We are like Fortunato, oblivious to the plan of revenge.

Getting Fortunato into his catacombs is easy: the amontillado does the trick.  The complication, I guess, comes in making him walk deeper and deeper into its dark passages.

For the reader, the complication comes when Fortunato debates turning back. Fortunato is ill with a bad cough, and the nitre of the catacombs only makes it worse.  Even Montressor beckons him to return:

"Come," I said, with decision, "we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible. Besides, there is Luchesi-"

This, of course, is really part of the plan, verbal irony by Montresor scripted to make it seem like he is a friend who cares about his health.  This bit of reverse psychology is the only complication I can see.

One definition of the term "complication" is that it is "A series of difficulties forming the central action in a narrative."  If we use this definition, I would say that the main complication is how Montresor gets Fortunato to follow him down into the cellar where Montresor will wall him up and kill him.

Montresor has his plan for how to kill Fortunato slowly.  But first he has to get him down into the cellar.  How he gets Fortunato there makes up most of the story.  So I would say that that is the complication.

The prime conflict of "The Cask of Amontillado" concerns Montressor's anger at Fortunato and the decision by Montressor to kill him. Although the narrator (Montressor) never tells the reader what Fortunato had done to earn his wrath, we do know that some recent insult prompted Montressor's revenge. Montressor must find a way to kill Fortunato without being found out: A "perfect crime" must be enabled. Montressor plots his crime in a patient, step-by-step method, luring Fortunato into the Montressor catacombs with the promise of a rare bottle of Amontillado. Once he gets Fortunato into position, the climax occurs: Montressor chains him to the ground, walls up the small "niche," and leaves Fortunato to die.

The only problem in “The Cask of Amontillado” is to lure Fortunato down into the catacombs where Montresor can leave him entombed. That is what the story is about. Being the last person seen with Fortunato would be Montresor’s biggest concern. Poe deliberately made this problem more complicated by deciding to dress the intended victim in such a way as to attract maximum notice.

He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.

Everybody would remember seeing Fortunato. He even has bells on his cap which jingle with every step. But by making this boisterous exhibitionist so conspicuous, Poe distracts all attention from his companion. Some revelers will remember that Fortunato had a companion, but no one will be able to identify him. Montresor is wearing a black cloak and a black mask. He is like a shadow of the other man.

This harlequin costume with the bells is a stroke of genius. Poe solves Montresor’s problem by magnifying it. Imagine trying to steer a drunken man through the crowded streets during the big carnival without being recognized by anyone! Montresor is virtually invisible just because Fortunato is so extremely visible.

After all, he is an important, well-known man. How could he be concealed? Even if he were wearing a different costume, one that concealed his body and face completely, some people would still recognize him as Fortunato. The important point is for Montresor not to be recognized as Montresor. He wants to commit his crime with “impunity.”

Fortunato chose the  costume himself. He does not think of himself as a fool but as a jester. These court buffoons were noted for playing cruel jokes under the protection of noble patrons. No doubt many of the “thousand injuries” Montresor had suffered were in the form of sadistic jibes. It will give him added satisfaction to chain the jester to the wall in his appropriate costume.

Poe specifies that the motley is “tight-fitting.” This is to show that Fortunato is unarmed. Court jesters did not carry weapons. Montresor, on the other hand, has a rapier concealed under his roquelaire. If he can only get Fortunato down the stairs, then his victim’s fate is sealed. If he can’t entice him all the way to the narrow niche where two short chains are fastened to the rock wall, he might be forced to kill him with his rapier and drag him there.

Montresor’s bizarre antics when they are underground, including claiming to be a Mason and showing Fortunato his trowel, are meant to demonstrate Montresor’s vast relief. The hardest part of his problem is solved. Now there are just the two of them alone underground, and Fortunato will never be seen again.

There is only one conflict in "The Cask of Amontillado," and it is man against man. Montresor is the protagonist and Fortunato the antagonist. Montresor wants to lure Fortunato down into his catacombs and do exactly what he ends up doing to him. He has plenty of problems in accomplishing this. He also wants to make sure that nobody will ever suspect him of killing Fortunato. He plans far ahead. He pretends the strongest friendship for his intended victim and gets into the habit of referring to him as his friend and his good friend, so much so that he continues to do so while he is describing how he lured Fortunato to his terrible death. When Fortunato's disappearance is realized and investigated, no one will think of suspecting Montresor because he and Fortunato were such good friends. Montresor invents a cask of Amontillado which he claims he bought at a bargain price but has doubts about its authenticity. He pretends that he was on his way to Luchesi since he was unable to find Fortunato that same night. The urgency suggests that he plans to buy more at the low price but has to assure himself it is genuine and has to act quickly before word gets around that a shipload of the gourmet wine is availalble. Fortunato probably would not have been so strongly motivated to go to Montresor's palazzo that very night if he wasn't afraid of having Luchesi find out about the Amontillado and possibly buy up the whole cargo. Fortunato naturally would like to buy some of the bargain-priced Amontillado himself--but he too has to sample it and make sure it is genuine. He is not motivated by the desire to help his friend. He is not motivated by a desire to show off his connoisseurship. He is not motivated by the desire to go all that distance just to drink a glass of  groumet wine. He could buy Amontillado by the glass or by the bottle right in Venice if he wanted to. Amontillado isn't that rare. It is the bargain and the possibility of making a big profit that motivates him.Fortunato is drunk, and Montresor keeps him drunk by giving him two bottles of French wine when they are in the catacombs. His conflict is not resolved until he has chained Fortunato against the wall and locked the padlock. There is no other important conflict in this story. There is no internal conflict. Montresor knows what he wants to do and has no serious misgivings about it. Looking for internal conflicts such as guilt or pity is a waste of time. He, of course, realizes that he can't change his mind after he has gotten Fortunato where he wants him.

"The Cask of Amontillado" is a tightly written story which leaves no room for any consideration of secondary external conlicts or primary internal conflicts. The problem of getting a drunken reveller dressed in a conspicuous costume, complete with a cap with ringing bells, down into the catacombs without being recognized by anybody on the crowded streets while keeping his victim drunk and compliant, while manipulating him by negative psychology, is sufficient. Anything more would be a distraction and would detract from the effect.

A man wants to commit a murder but he doesn't want to get caught and punished. That is the main conflict. In any story of this type the conflict would be man against man. Montresor has to commit the murder in such a way that no one will suspect him, including the police and the victim's relatives. The conflict is not resolved until Montresor has succeeded in chaining Fortunato to the granite wall and sealing the entrance to the niche. Thus there is a conflict from beginning to end, as there should be in a short story. Certain problems add to the conflict as the story progresses. Montresor discovers that Fortunato is wearing the most conspicuous sort of a costume on the public streets crowded with people. Fortunato is even wearing a cap with bells that ring with every step he takes. Yet Montresor must not be recognized as the man with him on the last night Fortunato was ever seen alive. Montresor has to plan for the future as well as the present. He  has to steer a boisterous, drunken man to his underground vaults an keep him manageable and unsuspecting up to the very moment he locks the padlock. (This is undoubtedly an old-fashioned padlock that locks with a key and not the kind that snaps shut automatically. A more modern padlock, such as we are familiar with today,would be easier to pry open.) What Montresor is accomplishing is extremely difficult, and it is sufficient for one short story without any additional kinds of conflicts. He not only commits his crime but avoids suspicion. He has committed the perfect crime. One of the biggest problems (conflicts) in committing a murder is disposing of the body. Poe has solved that problem by having Montresor commit the murder in such a way that the body is disposed of at the same time. In fact, Montresor disposes of the body before the victim is even dead.

The central conflict in the story is between Montresor and Fortunato.  Montresor tells the reader that Fortunato has committed a thousand offenses against him.  He does not name any of them, but they are serious enough to warrant a special type of revenge.

The other conflict concerns Montresor's revenge.  Montresor must exact a special type of revenge for himself and for his ancestors. Fortunato must know that he is being punished for his offenses against Montresor as he is being killed.  Only this type of justice will satisfy Montresor's revenge.

Montresor must take revenge on Fortunato to restore honor to his family name and allow his ancestors to return to their restful slumber in the afterlife. 

In "The Cask of Amontillado," there are two conflicts upon which the plot hinges:  the conflict, or problem, of Montesor against Fortunato as he tricks the connossieur of wine to enter his family tombs in order to task the Amontillado, and the efforts of Montesor "to not only punish, but punish with impunity."  That is, Montesor feels he must deceive Fortunato, yet later allow him to understand what act of vengeance has been committed against him.

To accomplish these almost contradictory tasks, Montesor urges Fortunato to drink, then he urges him to turn back as the tomb becomes damper, feigning his concern in order to deceive him.  While so doing, Montesor hints at his vengeful act, stating that he is a "mason," using a pun upon the word, that Fortunato will realize only when it is too late and he is walled in.  As Fortunato is walled in, Montesor repeats Fortunato's plea with  mock irony:  "Yes,...for the love of God."

However, Montesor does not receive a reply as he wishes: 

But to these words I hearned in vain for a reply....No answer...No answer still.

Montesor complains that his "heart grew sick," but makes the excuse "on account of the dampness of the catacombs."  Perhaps, then, only one conflict is resolved.  The acknowledgement of Montesor's insidious plan has not been given by Fortunato.

The conflicts can only be between Montresor and Fortunato, since they are the only two characters in the story. A conflict in a story arises when one character, the protagonist, wants something and is having a hard time getting it, for one reason or another. Montresor wants to murder Fortunato, but he wants to do so with what he calls "impunity." He not only doesn't want to get caught and punished for the crime, but he doesn't even want to be suspected. For years he puts up with Fortunato's "injuries" and "insults" and pretends to be the man's friend. He refers to Fortunato many times as "my friend" and even once or twice as "my good friend." This is because he has formed the habit of doing so publicly as often as possible, and now he keeps doing it out of force of habit. When Fortunato disappears, no one will suspect Montresor of foul play because the two men were known to be such good friends. This is one way Montresor solves a problem or conflict.

He must steer Fortunato down into his underground vaults. How? This is another conflict. He invents a cask of amontillado to lure his victim to his palazzo. This works--but he doesn't want to be seen on the streets with Fortunato shortly before the man's disappearance. How can he avoid being noticed on the crowded streets during the riotous carnival season? This is another conflict. Poe resolves this by dressing Fortunato in the most conspicuous possible costume, as a jester who even has a cap ringing bells on his head. Naturally this would attract attention, but it would distract attention from the companion who was wearing a black cloak and a black mask.

Then Montresor has to guide Fortunato into a narrow niche and attach the chains before his victim understands what is happening and puts up a struggle. Montresor handles this conflict by keeping Fortunato drunk. Twice they stop and consume bottles of wine. No doubt Montresor makes sure his "good friend" gets the most of each bottle.

After Fortunato is chained to the wall, the major conflicts are solved. The victim screams for help, but nobody can hear him so deep underground. He tries to talk Montresor into releasing him, but Montresor is adamant. He pleads for mercy, but these pleas are only music to Montresor's ears.

No one ever suspects Montresor of being responsible for Fortunato's mysterious disappearance, and the body has remained undiscovered for fifty years. Montresor had many conflicts to resolve, and he did so successfully with planning and foresight.