Sinister is a good word to describe the main character in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” Montresor has planned the perfect murder and carries it out. The reader knows this because the entire story is told fifty years later by the elderly Montresor who narrators the story. Monstresor decides to murder Fortunato because he has insulted him. Not a good reason, but apparently it is all that Montresor has.
The time of the story is during the carnival season probably much like the Mardi Gras today. Apparently, it is a very rowdy time because Montresor uses the word “madness.” There are two settings for the story: the carnival scene and then Montresor’s home and the catacombs beneath his palace.
The Catacombs-
Monstresor had made careful preparations for the murder. The catacombs were the perfect place for a murder. All of the servants had been dismissed to go to the carnival, so there was no one at home. Catacombs were underground burial tunnels. The corpses would be laid in indentions in the walls of the catacombs.
As they begin their descent down into the catacombs, Montresor grabs two torches. Obviously, this is a dark and damp place. The use of the word descent would imply that the catacombs lie far beneath the base of the house. Along the walls of the cavern were frames that had been built to hold wine bottles. Everything is moist and moldy since it is so far beneath the ground.
As the men travel through the vast cavern, they pass by many walls with bones and skeletons piled up and mixed in with large and small barrels of wine.
'The nitre!' I said; 'see, it increases. It hangs like moss upon the vaults. We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among the bones. Come, we will go back ere it is too late. Your cough -'
Nitre is potassium nitrate. In the sun, it hardens, but in moist areas is clings together and has a mossy appearance. The nitre is everywhere along the walls and ceilings. Moving through the catacombs becomes more difficult because there are low arches which support the ceiling of the tunnel.
At the farthest end of the cavern is another crypt. All three granite walls are lined with more skeletons piled to the top of the ceiling. In the farthest corner, there was an inset or recess which was to be the burial place for the unsuspecting Fortunato.
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” could be found deep in the catacombs of the Montresor family. That is the crux of the story. Fortunato’s hubris will force him to leave the carnival and follow Montresor down into the vault to taste the wine. Through several psychological ploys, the drunken Fortunato intends to show Montresor that he has been a fool by buying fake Amontillado.
Montresor has made detailed plans to draw Fortunato into the catacombs. Catacombs in Italy are ancient underground burial tunnels...
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that were used to bury thousands of bodies. His servants have been allowed to attend the carnival. No one is home at the Montresor house. As the pair enters the catacombs, Montresor lights two torches.
As they begin their journey from freedom to confinement, Montresor points out to Fortunato the white web work on the walls and ceiling.
…passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame. The nitre!" I said; "see, it increases. It hangs like moss upon the vaults. We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among the bones. Come, we will go back ere it is too late. Your cough --"
Fortunato states that it is nitre [potassium nitrate] caused by the dampness in the underground tunnels. The vaults are encrusted with the crystalline salt used to make gunpowder.
The air is foul as they pass through the damp tunnels and low arches supporting the catacombs. The walls are piled with skeletons mingled with small and large barrels of wine. The depth of the tunnel goes beneath the water level. Drops of moisture fall on the men as the pass through the tunnels. Traveling through the mounds of bones made the journey more unpleasant because of the stench.
When they arrive at the farthest end of the tomb, there is larger vault. It walls were stacked to the ceiling with bones and human remains. Behind a huge wall of bones, there was another are that had been recently constructed in a certain size and had a back wall of granite.
Fortunato is trapped in a space that represents the opposite of freedom: he is chained up and bricked inside a man-sized crypt with no air and no way out. It was here that Fortunato was to spend the rest of his life shackled to this wall
Describe the vault/catacombs in the story "The Cask of Amontillado."
Montresor's vaults are described as being dark, wet, and foreboding. Initially, Montressor carries torches down into the catacombs because of the extreme darkness of the vaults. Fortunato follows Montresor down a winding staircase until they reach the damp ground of the vault. Montresor then comments on the "white web-work" on the cavern walls. Fortunato then takes note of the "nitre" on the walls of the cavern. Nitre is another name for potassium nitrate, which is a white crystalline salt that is often used as fertilizer and a constituent of gunpowder.
As the two characters descend further into Montresor's catacombs, Fortunato mentions that the vaults are extensive. Montresor then comments on the numerous piles of bones, "casks and puncheons intermingling." Montresor also mentions that the nitre hangs from the walls like moss and tells Fortunato that they are underneath a riverbed. This information explains the dampness of the catacombs and indicates that the vaults are deep underground. The end of the vaults are described as a dark crypt, where the "foulness of the air" causes their torches to glow. Three of the walls are aligned with human remains to the ceiling, and there is a small depression in the back wall, where Montresor locks Fortunato inside as he gradually buries him alive. Overall, Montresor's catacombs are dark, extensive, damp, and filled with piles of human bones.
Describe the vault/catacombs in the story "The Cask of Amontillado."
The vaults are very damp and encrusted with niter, a crystalline salt used to make gunpowder, as a fertilizer, and in medicine. They are also very large because this is where the dead bodies of family members are laid. Montresor reminds Fortunato that his family is very large. As they are walking, Montresor tells Fortunato to "observe the white web-work which gleams from these cavern walls." He continues, saying, "We passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling." Casks and puncheons were used to store the wine, so the catacombs have several uses. "We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among the bones." Not only are the catacombs very large, they go down very deep below the surface. "We passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air." As they go further down, the smell of the air changes and smells bad. We are reminded that the Montresors do punish those who offend them.