Explication for The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe - Essay Example

The festivities and the Lenten season never gave a hint to the character named Fortunato that the man whom he considers a friend will be sealing him behind the wall with the bones of Montresor’s ancestors as the sole witnesses. The two major characters in Poe's story were not described in detail by the author. Hints on Fortunato and Montresor's stature in society are revealed throughout the conversation between the two main characters as well as the thoughts of the story's narrator. Fortunato was described by the narrator to be a man who would never want anyone outdo him.

He was also a man with a highly regarded reputation in the society, a man with wealth inherited from his family line. One distinct characteristic of Fortunato was his connoisseurship in wine which made him fall easily into the perpetrator’s deception and eventually to his death. The author also implies that Fortunato was sought-after by some people in the high society for his skill in wine and that he was a man of great wealth as well as power. Fortunato was also predisposed to thinking that he was the best wine connoisseur and has a tendency to insult people to prove that his skills are superior.

This rudeness is unmistakable when Fortunato talked about Luchresi, a rival wine connoisseur. In the beginning of the story, it is evident that Montresor bears a grudge against his friend Fortunato and was harboring ill feelings toward his comrade for some time. The personality of Montresor, the narrator of the story, on the other hand was perceptible since the author let the readers have a look in the mind of a man set on murdering his friend. In the story, the man was once wealthy as Fortunato and was also skilled with wine.

During the course of the story Montresor had hesitations over proceeding with his vicious plans indicating that he was a man compelled to kill because he was either pushed to his limits or he was immensely offended by Fortunato. In the opening part of the story, Montresor even described himself as a man who is unlikely to think of revenge. The aggressor in the story, in some way, is being justified for his cruelty towards the character who gravely insulted him. The cause and the carrying out of a pre-meditated vindictive plan was the main theme of the story.

Although the theme of the story is clear at the introductory part, elements accentuated or mentioned in the entire story require some analytical skills from the reader. Poe’s short story repeatedly mentioned of nitre on the walls of the catacombs the two characters were traversing on the way to the vaults. The nature of nitre or saltpeter was shown in the story since the chemical can cause respiratory irritation (Stwertka 74) which may probably worsened the character Fortunato’s cough. Another characteristic of saltpeter is its flammability.

Nitre is advised to be stored away from any cause of heat, flame or ignition. (Stwertka 74) In the Cask of Amontillado, Montresor chained Fortunato and walled him up before putting in the torch. A background in the nature of nitre is useful in understanding the story because knowing that the chemical heavily encrusting the walls of the catacombs is flammable points out how Fortunato died in the story. Montresor did not simply wall-up Fortunato to leave him for dead, the story did not provide a detailed account on how Fortunato died but described how Montresor built the wall by tiers and how before sealing the victim completely with one stone left to set in place, the aggressor threw the torch in the makeshift