It is set during the carnival season in 19th century Italy, in an ancient city of palazzi and secret vaults and catacombs. The first person narrator Montresor bears a grudge -- the reader never learns exactly why -- against one of his "friends", ironically called Fortunato, and wants to take revenge on him. Montresor finds his "friend", inebriated and dressed in motley, at dusk and induces him to follow the narrator into the catacombs to discover if a cask of amontillado -- a kind of Spanish sherry -- is worth the price paid. They walk and talk; discussing Fortunato's health, the Montresor family motto (Nemo me impune lacessit - No-one insults me with impunity), and membership of the Freemasons (with double meaning), whilst the ominous atmosphere increases as they continue to the damp, nitrous air of the Montresor crypt.
Dumbfounded at the absence of the amontillado at the end of their passage, Fortunato is suddenly chained to the wall. Montresor proceeds to build a wall, sealing him off to die from lack of air. Fortunato proceeds from shock to sobriety to screams to desperation -
"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MONTRESOR!" "Yes," I said, "for the love of God!"
-to final silence as the last bricks are laid.
External Links