Directions
• Portfolio= completed work: Will contain
work necessary for the whole story/unit
– Journal Responses
– Vocabulary
– Pictures, Dividers, & Table of Contents
– Literary Questions & Responses
– Information on characterization
– Thematic discussions
– Summary
“The Cask of Amontillado” by
Edgar Allan Poe
Table of Contents
1. Has anyone ever done anything to
you that made you want to get
revenge on them? What did they
do?
2. Have you ever gotten revenge
on someone for something they
did to you? What did you do to
them in return? Why did you feel
a need to get revenge?
3. Explain how the revenge made
you feel. Did you get caught? If
you had gotten caught, would that
have changed the feeling the
revenge gave you? Explain.
VOCABULARY
catacombs
• Catacombs are considered an
underground cemetery, especially one
consisting of tunnels and rooms with
recesses dug out for coffins and tombs.
• an underground passageway, especially
one full of twists and turns.
DEFINE
Connoisseurship
Amontillado
Virtuoso
Definitions Cont.’
Impunity
Immolation
Retribution
fettered
• A fetter is a chain or shackle placed on the
feet.
• Usually used in the plural - “fetters” can
refer to anything that confines or restrains.
• Thus, “fettered” means confined or
restrained, literally by a chain or shackle
placed on the feet, or figuratively by
something like boredom or poverty.
connoisseur
• a person who is especially competent to
pass critical judgments in an art,
particularly one of the fine arts, or in
matters of taste: a connoisseur of modern
art.
• a discerning judge of the best in any field:
a connoisseur of horses.
Definitions cont.
• Gait
• Motley
• Pipe – a large barrel, holding
approximately 126 gallons
• Roquelaure
precluded
• to prevent the presence, existence, or
occurrence of; make impossible: The
insufficiency of the evidence precludes a
conviction.
retribution
• retaliation, repayment, recompense.
afflicted
• to distress with mental or bodily pain;
trouble greatly or grievously: to be afflicted
with arthritis.
• vex, harass, torment, plague.
• Afflicted- suffering or sickened
explicit
• fully and clearly expressed or
demonstrated; leaving nothing merely
implied; unequivocal: explicit instructions;
an explicit act of violence; explicit
language.
• precise, exact, unambiguous
Definitions Continued
• Recoiling-
• Subsided-
Literary Terms/ Questions
1. CHARACTERIZE Montresor.
What kind of person is he?
• Concerned with honor –give and example
from the text.
• Cruel – taunts Fortunato by showing him…
• Manipulative – How does Montresor entrap
Fortunato? How does M manipulate his
servants?
• Sociopathic/psychopathic- define and give
example from text.
2. What might Fortunato’s name
mean?
3. Why might Fortunato’s name be
IRONIC?
4. Give examples of IRONY in the
story, including SITUATIONAL,
DRAMATIC, and VERBAL IRONY.
• Situational:
• Dramatic:
• Verbal:
5. How does not knowing what
Fortunato did to Montresor
intensify the horror of this story?
6. Would the story be better or worse if
you knew what Fortunato did to
Montresor? Explain.
7. Explain how Montresor’s family
motto is related to the story? To the
actions of Montresor?
• The motto translates, “No one insults me
with impunity.”
8. How does Montresor manipulate
Fortunato? What CHARACTER
TRAITS make Fortunato easy prey for
Montresor?
• A.
• B.
9. What is the setting? What details of
the setting contribute to the horror of
this story?
10. Contrast the setting in the
beginning of the story with the setting
where Montresor takes Fortunato.
11. Explain the MOOD of this story.
Give examples from the text to support
your answer.
• Horrifying –
– Montresor toys with Fortunato,
–1
–2
–3
– Fortunato is
– while Montresor is
12. Who is the PROTAGONIST
of this story? Justify your answer.
13. Who is the ANTAGONIST of
this story? Defend your answer.
14. Who is the narrator of this story?
What kind of narrator is he?
• Who?
• Kind?
• May be unreliable
– Doesn’t explain the “insult”
– Might have pangs of conscience
• “My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the
catacombs…”
• Why is he telling this story 50 years later? possibly
deathbed confession?
15. Explain a symbol in the story.
• The cask of Amontillado could
symbolize…
• Montresor’s coat of arms could
symbolize…
• Fortunato’s fool costume symbolizes…
15. Explain a symbol in the story.
(cont.)
• Carnival symbolizes
• The catacombs
Romantic Story Analysis Chart
Fantasy and Imagination
• N/A
Love of Nature
• N/A
Intense Emotion
• Montresor’s desire for revenge
• Fortunato’s fear as he’s being walled up
Sympathetic interest in the past,
medieval
• Montresor’s home and catacombs seem
medieval
Exotic Places
• Italy
• Carnival
• Catacombs
Legends and Myths
• Buried alive
Death
• Fortunato
Morbid melancholy; insanity
• Montresor is sociopathic
The Supernatural
• N/A
Failed Love
• N/A
Mysticism (spiritual intuition beyond ordinary
understanding)
• N/A
Rural Life and the Common Man
• N/A