preview

Cask of Amontillado

Better Essays

Foreshadowing the Fate in “The Cask of Amontillado” In “Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allan Poe presents a murderous tale of revenge revealed as the confession of a man who murdered another man over fifty years ago because of an “insult.” During a carnival festival, the murderer led his companion to the catacombs where he buried the man alive. The charter of Montresor lures his victim, Fortunato with the promise of a fine sherry, amontillado. As Poe’s character of Montresor guides the wine connoisseur, Fortunato, Poe symbolically foreshadows the impending murder. Before even reading the story Poe foreshadows Fortunato’s fate with the title of the story. In the title of Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado” the “cask” is short for casket. …show more content…

The Danes were creeping forward in a night raid when one of their party stepped on a thistle. His outcry roused the Scots, who fell upon the Danes with great fury and slaughtered them. Ever since, the thistle has been adopted as the insignia of Scotland, with the motto "Nemo me impune lacessit." In the Montresor coat-of-arms, it is a snake that is stepped on, but the important similitude is the foot stepping to its own destruction. (Cervo 155-156) Fortunato, much like the Danes, fits what the coat of arms portrayed because he is stepping to his own demise. As Montresor guild Fortunato through his catacombs there are many signs of the impending doom that looms over Fortunato’s head. Montresor leads his companion through his family catacombs, a massive underground graveyard were many dead have been brought. Montresor has brought Fortunato there to bury him without honor by killing him in the Montresor family catacombs and not returning his body to his family graves. Throughout the trip in the catacombs Montresor points out a symbol of death the nitre. The nitre is used to make gunpowder a device used in the killing of many people. When Montresor asks Fortunato to pass his hand by the nitre and touch it he is telling Fortunato to touch death. The conditions in the catacombs also foreshadow the future of Fortunato. The nitre on the wall is cause by cold and wet conditions which causes

Get Access