What are three hints Montresor gives Fortunato about his intentions in "The Cask of Amontillado"?

Montresor's hints are used to fulfill the third condition of his vendetta; a condition he clarifies in the exposition of "The Cask of Amontillado": 

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

While Fortunato certainly becomes aware of Montresor's intent as he is shackled and walled in at the end of the narrative, he does not seem to fully comprehend the meaning behind Montresor's hints until this moment.  

Here are three hints that Montresor gives Fortunato:

1. Montresor's actions follow the pattern of a requiem mass. The celebrant of this mass would be Montresor, who wears black in the same manner that a priest would wear a black vestment. Also, there is the lighting of candles/"flambeaux," the ringing of bells, and the drinking of wine. This all suggests a funeral. This suggestion of funeral rituals hints suggests that Montresor is performing a blasphemous black mass in which a victim becomes a sacrifice.
2. As they go deeper into the vaults, there is a certain irony to Montresor's remarks when he tells Fortunato that he drinks to his long life after the man toasts the deceased Montresors. Then, Fortunato says, "I forget your arms." Montresor describes his coat of arms as having a large golden foot crushing a serpent that is rearing up. All of this is against a blue background. The motto reads, "No one assails me with impunity" (i.e. "No one can attack me without being punished"). This description hints at Montresor's intent to avenge himself against Fortunato.
3. As they go deeper into the catacombs, Montresor points out the niter to Fortunato. However, the drunken Fortunato ignores this warning to his health as he drinks more and gesticulates in the air. He repeats one motion that Montresor finds "grotesque"; it is the sign of the secret fraternal order, the Freemasons. Montresor pretends that he does not understand, so Fortunato asks, "You are not of the masons?" But Montresor says he is. When Fortunato requests a sign from Montresor that he is a Mason, Montresor makes a ridiculous pun on the name by pulling from his cloak a brick mason's, trowel. Fortunato recoils a few steps, and he exclaims, "You jest." At this point, Fortunato seems somewhat suspicious, but the promise of Amontillado lures him on: "But let us proceed to the Amontillado."

With great duplicity, Montresor succeeds in fooling Fortunato even though he has provided his victim with  hints. As Montresor lays brick upon brick, Fortunato can only plead with him for his life.

When does Fortunato realize Montresor's harmful intentions in "The Cask of Amontillado"?

Fortunato does not realize that Montresor plans to harm him until he has had a little time to sober up. It would appear that he begins to realize the terrible situation he is in at the following point in the story.

I had scarcely laid the first tier of the masonry when I discovered that the intoxication of Fortunato had in a great measure worn off. The earliest indication I had of this was a low moaning cry from the depth of the recess. It was not the cry of a drunken man.

Fortunato has to go over a whole series of incidents in his mind. He met Montresor up on the street. Montresor said he had a pipe of Amontillado he needed to have an expert sample. They came back to Montresor's palazzo together, down the stairs, along some passages--and now he is chained to the granite wall of a narrow niche, and Montresor, whom he thought was his friend, is starting to build a wall. The "low moaning cry" must represent Fortunato's realization that he has been tricked. Montresor has been deceiving him for years and has made a fool of him.

There was then a long and obstinate silence. 

Fortunato, now fully sober, must be feeling the chains, the padlock, and the bolts holding the chains to the rock wall. He is hoping to find a weak spot of some sort. But he wouldn't want to break free as long as Montresor was still there. Montresor might kill him. He is thinking of waiting until Montresor finishes the wall and then breaking the chain or the padlock. The mortar in the wall would still be damp, and he could knock out enough stones to get free of the niche. He is doing everything in silence because he doesn't want Montresor to guess what he is up to..

I laid the second tier, and the third, and the fourth; and then I heard the furious vibrations of the chain.

Fortunato has failed to find any weak place in the chains or padlock. Now he is desperate and starts struggling. It is futile.

A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back.

Fortunato is panicked. But he finds out that screaming for help is useless when Montresor starts screaming along with him. They are deep underground. Nobody could possibly hear them.

“Ha! ha! ha!—he! he! he!—a very good joke, indeed—an excellent jest. We will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo—he! he! he!—over our wine—he! he! he!”

As a last resort, Fortunato pretends that he believes this is all a practical joke. He is giving Montresor an excuse for changing his mind about killing him. He knows that Montresor might have some misgivings about having been seen with him just before he disappeared. He thinks he can make Montresor believe that he was expected at home that night and people would be out searching for him if he failed to appear. So he tries to plant some fears in Montresor's mind.

“He! he! he!—he! he! he!—yes, the Amontillado. But is it not getting late? Will not they be awaiting us at the palazzo, the Lady Fortunato and the rest? Let us be gone.”

He says "awaiting us" to suggest that many people had observed them together and assumed they were on their way to Fortunato's palazzo. Montresor had previously established that Fortunato was not expected anywhere. He had twice pretended he thought Fortunato had an "engagement," and the second time he had suggested this, Fortunato had said: “I have no engagement;—come.”

So the first indication that Fortunato realizes Montresor is his enemy, not his friend, and that his enemy has him in his power and intends to kill him, is when he utters that "low moaning cry from the depth of the recess." Fortunato never really believes this is a practical joke. He tries desperately to escape and uses psychology as a last resort, but in the end he is left to die. Montresor concludes his narrative with these words:

Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!

In "The Cask of Amontillado," why does Montresor want Fortunato to be aware of his actions?

Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado” ventures into the world of retribution.  The entire story surround’s the main character’s desire for vengeance for an insult.  This was the final straw after “the thousand injuries” that Montresor had suffered at the hands of the Fortunato

The point of view of the story is first person with Montresor as the narrator.  His vague explanation for his determination to punish Fortunato makes the reader wonder about the sanity of the narrator. Montresor tells the reader that he has vowed revenge.

At length I would be avenged: this was point definitely settled…I must not only punish but punish with impunity.  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.

To understand the quotation it is important to define these words:

• impunity- freedom from punishment or to receive immunity
• redresser-the person seeking revenge
• unredressed- unable to set things right or repair

Montresor establishes two important aspects of his punishment for

1st

The crime can never be attributed to Montresor. If a person commits an act of revenge, the vengeance must never be connected to him.  Punish with impunity---this means to punish someone without being punished for the act. Montresor must never be caught. The insult will not be avenged if the redresser [Montresor] receives any punishment.

2nd

It is important to Montresor that Fortunato knows that it is Montresor that is committing the act of retaliation.  If Fortunato were to simply die from some unknown cause without knowing that Montresor caused his death, Montresor feels that this also would not complete the act of revenge.

Montresor’s family coat of arms extends the idea of retribution. A foot crushes the snake [a wrong has been done] with the snake turning its head and biting the foot [the wrong has been avenged].

When Montresor begins to close up the death niche for Fortunato, it seems odd that Montresor does not provide an explanation for his killing Fortunato. Why did he not tell Fortunato why this was happening?  Fortunato was either too drunk to ask the right questions or he understood why he was receiving this punishment. 

Montresor does accomplish his goal.  The murder is never discovered.  At the end of the story, the narrator tells the reader that it has been fifty years since the murder. No one has disturbed the bones of Fortunato.  Montresor ends the story with “Rest in Peace.” He punished Fortunato with impunity.

Montresor let Fortunato know about him buying a cask of Amontillado because he knew that the latter had a weakness for wine. Fortunato had great pride in his connoisseurship in wine, plus he was a drunkard. Montresor vowed to get revenge from Fortunato for his "one thousand insults." He made up a story about the Amontillado and lured Fortunato to check if it was real (by playing on the latter's vanity) for him to realize his revenge. He knew that Fortunato wouldn't pass up a chance to taste the Amontillado, trick Montresor into believing it was not actual Amontillado, and then purchase some of the expensive fine wine for himself at a cheap price.

This plan was illustrated in the first three paragraphs of the story.

Which of Montresor's words and actions potentially revealed his plan to Fortunato in "The Cask of Amontillado"?

Montresor narrates “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe. Everything in the story comes through the point of view of Montresor, an unreliable narrator. As he takes the reader along on his murderous journey with the drunken Fortunato, Montresor shows himself to be evil, sinister, and unashamed of his devious plot. 

The plans for Fortunato’s death are so well constructed that the reader goes along thinking that the amontillado had better be good for such a creepy trip.  From the first words of the story, Montresor does hint that he will seek vengeance with impunity.  This equates to the perfect crime which Montresor does accomplish.  The reader learns that the entire story has been a flashback for Montresor looking back fifty years later.

What hints did Montresor declare that should have warned Fortunato that everything was not as it seemed?

(1) If Fortunato had not been drinking, Montresor would have been less likely to draw Fortunato into his plan.  Who would go down into a cold, stinking, corpse-filled tunnel to taste wine? Obviously, Montresor had studied his enemy and knew his weaknesses.

(2) If he had not been so drunk, the ploy of using Luchesi in reverse psychology as a better judge of wine. This repeated threat of bringing Luchesi into the tasting of the wine makes Fortunato want to go even more.

(3) After the terrible coughing spell, Montresor makes a statement that should have made Fortunato at least inquire as to what Montresor meant:

”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 Luches-"

The statements indicating that Montresor is no longer happy and that he would not be missed should have been a sign that Montresor is harboring some unhappiness.

(4) Then Fortunato says that he will not die of a cough.  Montresor using verbal irony states: "True --true," I replied; "and, indeed, I had no intention of alarming you unnecessarily --but you should use all proper caution. A draught of this Medoc will defend us from the damps. Even though, Montresor does not make it obvious that he knows how Fortunato will die, he could have picked up on the unusual statement.

(5) As the two proceed down the tunnels of the catacombs, a discussion occurs concerning the Masons.  Fortunato insults Montresor again that he could not be a member.  Montresor pulls from under his cloak a trowel.  Why would someone carry a trowel? This should have made Fortunato at least question why he had it with him.

Unfortunately, for Fortunato, his hubris and drunkenness led him not to the amontillado but his own tomb.  Fortunato betrays himself by not paying enough attention to his surroundings. It is there that he will spend eternity.

There are several clues that Montressor has nothing good plannned for Fortunato. For one thing, he mentions his family motto, which translates into "No one attacks me with impunity (freedom from punishment)".  Had Fortunato realized that he'd insulted Montressor in some way, that motto would have given him a clue that Montressor would take revenge.  Montressor also mentions his family crest, which is a foot stepping on a snake, but the snake in turn is biting the foot stepping on it.  This is a pictorial representation of the motto regarding revenge.  Even if he never realized that he'd insulted Montressor, Fortunato could have been alerted by the trowel Montressor carried.  Who needs a trowel to see a cask of wine?  They even chat about Montressor being a mason, so that conversation might have made Fortunato wonder about the reason for the trowel.  But Montressor is clever and plays on Fortunato's pride about being a wine expert, and even suggests several times that they turn back if the nitre is too much for Fortunato.  It is Fortunato who insists that they continue.  Montressor, in  his mind, tells himself, "Hey, I gave him every chance, but he's the one who refused to go back."

Well, first of all his fawning attentions should have raised some alarm.  Montressor becomes syrupy sweet in his praise and such compliments might have been suspect in anyone not quite so dense as Fortunato.  However, as for specific verbiage, these lines certainly are omninous:

"A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure ; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel."

"And the motto ?"

"Nemo me impune lacessit."

"Good !" he said.

Montressor intends to crush Fortunato beneath his heel, and the Latin translation is "No one provokes me with impunity."  We never know exactly what Fortunato has done to provoke Montressor to such murderous rage, but his doom is nonetheless assured.   

What three hints does Montresor give Fortunato about his intentions, and how does Fortunato interpret them?

Fortunato is 'the fool,' but Montresor is the true jester. He plays with Fortunato's pride and credulity. When he tells him about the Amontillado, he repeats he has doubts about its authenticity but says he will seek Luchesi's advice instead. He hints that things are not always what they seem to be and suggests that Fortunato's discernment may not be as keen as Luchesi's. This only kindles Fortunato's desire to show off his own expertise. So he follows Montresor, who dons his own mask and disguise. Another sign of dissimulation and ruse, but Fortunato stumbles blindly on.

Montresor then mentions Fortunato's cough and the ill effects of the cold and damp: "You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter." Doesn't he mean here that he is indifferent to Fortunato's imminent fate? When he replies that a mere cold will not kill him, Montresor mutters, "True - true," but Fortunato is interested, rather, in drinking off a bottle of Medoc and ironically makes a toast to the dead in the crypt.

Fortunato's conscience should be pricked when Montresor explains his family's coat of arms, but he is too tipsy to make the connection. Nor does he wonder why he should be carrying a trowel under his cloak which he pro-offers as a "sign" of the masons. "You jest," he utters as he steps back, but insists on going on.

The lines of nitre spreading along the vaults Montresor refers to suggest a spiderweb, and Fortunato, of course, is the prey.

Montresor continually pesters Fortunato about the "cold" which he seems to have; the cold is both literal and a foreshadowing of the death which he will soon suffer. Fortunato thinks nothing of the continual questioning of his health, and proceeds blindly on into the cask.

As they progress into the cellar-like chamber, Montresor states, "Once more let me implore you to return. No? Then I positively leave you. But I must first render you all the little attentions in my power." Montressor is so distracted by the thought of the Amontillado, that he doesn't even respond to the implication that he will be left within the walls of the cask.

Lastly, in the final scene of this gruesome story, Montresor, as he seals up his victim within the wall, responds to Fortunato's request to leave with, "Yes, let us be gone." The kind of "gone" he means is obviously very different than that meant by Fortunato. Poe loved to play on words in this fashion. The victim pleas "For the love of God, Montresor!" to which the murderer replies, "Yes, for the love of God!" And so the deed is done.  

What do Montresor's initial words foretell about his future with Fortunato in "The Cask of Amontillado"?

With the hyperbolic first words, "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could.." followed by the detailed three-step requirements for perfect revenge, the reader is alerted to the instability of Montresor and the possibility of dangerous repercussions with his plan of revenge against the ironically-named Fortunato:

1. Montresor plans not only to avenge himself, but to seek his revenge "with impunity"; that is, without punishment. Therefore, he has planned his revenge with precision.
2. The revenge must not overtake Montresor; that is, the revenge must not come back to harm him.
3. Montresor insists that his victim must be made aware that he is avenging himself.

With such a well-thought out and cruel plan, the reader suspects that Montresor's plans against Fortunato will be brutally cruel and absolutely final. And such is the case because Montresor at the end states,

For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat

Thus, Montresor ends with an ironic note in saying, "May he rest in peace" while also underscoring his three-point plan of revenge in which he has punished his enemy without being caught, he is not disturbed by what he has done, and Fortunato has been made well aware of his victimization by Montresor.

What does the reader learn about Montresor's plans for Fortunato in the first two paragraphs of "The Cask of Amontillado"?

"The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe is narrated in the first person by Montresor. He claims that not only did Fortunato injure him at some time before the murder but that Fortunato had in some way insulted him as well. Not only does Montresor want revenge, but he also wants to make sure that he succeeds in completing his plans of vengeance without getting caught. 

The most important information is supplied in the second paragraph where Montresor describes how he has lulled the potential suspicions of Fortunato by not giving any hint of his enmity but instead smiling and projecting good will. Thus Fortunato thinks of Montresor as a friend, rather than knowing that Montresor is plotting to murder him. 

This dissimulation not only serves to dupe Fortunato but gives the reader a notion of the genuine evil of Montresor's character.