A Few Key Passages from "The Cask of Amondillado"

1. Motivation

The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.  You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat.  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.  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.

2. Manipulation

"As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchesi.  If any one has a critical turn, it is he.  He will tell me--" "Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry." "And yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your own." "Come, let us go."

"Let us go, nevertheless.  The cold is merely nothing. Amontillado! You have been imposed upon.  And as for Luchresi, he cannot distinguish Sherry from Amontillado."

I had told them that I should not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned.

3. Ironies and wordplays revealing the Narrator¡¯s cruel nature

"I drink," he said, "to the buried that repose around us."

"And I to your long life."

"I forget your arms." "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. The wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled.  My own fancy grew warm with the Medoc.

4. Irony in a little bickering concerning Freemason

"You are not of the masons." "Yes, yes," I said; "yes, yes." "You?  Impossible!  A mason?" "A mason," I replied. "A sign," he said, "a sign." "It is this," I answered, producing a trowel from beneath the folds of my roquelaire.

5. The Narrator¡¯s deceptive self-justification

"Pass your hand," I said, "over the wall; you cannot help feeling the nitre.  Indeed, it is very damp.  Once more let me implore you to return.  No?  Then I must positively leave you.  But I must first render you all the little attentions in my power."

6. The Narrator¡¯s vindictive nature expressed without irony

The wall was now nearly upon a level with my breast.  I again paused, and holding the flambeaux over the mason-work, threw a few feeble rays upon the figure within. A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back.  For a brief moment I hesitated--I trembled.  Unsheathing my rapier, I began to grope with it about the recess; but the thought of an instant reassured me.  I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied.  I reapproached the wall; I replied to the yells of him who clamoured.  I re-echoed--I aided--I surpassed them in volume and in strength.  I did this, and the clamourer grew still.

7. Ending without Poetic Justice

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

8. Two Film Adaptations

9. A Sample Paper on The Cask of Amontillado.jpg  The Best Paper on "The Cask of Amontillado"