Edgar Allan Poe

“The Cask of Amontillado”

 The Biography of Edgar Allan Poe

• Called the “Father of the Detective Story”

• Born on Jan. 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts
• Mom died when he was 2.
• Dad had abandoned the family.
• Was fostered by the Allan family.
• Started writing poetry at age 13.
• Went to University of Virginia in 1826.
• Had to leave school because he was in debt.
• Went to West Point in 1830.
 The Biography of Edgar Allan Poe
• Became a full time writer
• Settled down in Richmond, Virginia
• Married his 13 year old cousin
• Worked as a literary critic for newspapers and magazines
• Published a collection of short stories called Tales of the
Grotesque and Arabesque in 1840 (about ghosts, crime,
horror)
• Detective story: “Murders in the Rue Morgue” published
in 1841
• Best-selling poem: “The Raven” published in 1845
• Died on Oct. 7, 1849 at the age of 40 under strange
circumstances
 The Paris Catacombs
• In late 1700’s, the Paris cemeteries were
overcrowded.
• City officials moved the bones to tunnels under the
city.
• 6 million bodies
• Knowns as “L’Empire de la Mort” in French, which
means “The Empire of Death”
• About 200 feet below the streets of Paris
• Includes a carving of a prison, which took 5 years to
complete
 Setting
• Why do you think Poe used this setting for
his short story?
 “The Cask of Amontillado”
• Amontillado: a rare, expensive wine
• Vault/ Catacombs:
– Underground tunnels, often functioning as tombs
– A nice, cool place to store wine
• Coat of Arms: a family’s crest
 Questions

• 2. How does Montresor (the speaker) lure Fortunato

to his vault?
– He says he would like Fortunato’s opinion about
his new wine and then makes Fortunato jealous by
hinting that he might ask for help form Fortunato’s
rival instead.
3. What does Fortunato keep doing that makes
Montresor “concerned” for him?
– He keeps coughing.
• 4. How has Montresor chosen to murder
Fortunato?
– He chains him inside a small cave and
then builds a wall in front of the entrance.
• 5. How does Montresor respond when
Fortunato begins to scream?
– He screams even louder himself.
6. Montresor says he drinks to Fortunato’s
“long life”. Now that you have read the
story, what double meaning can you
understand?
 AN UNRELIABLE NARRATOR
• Definition
– A character whose telling of the story
is not completely accurate or credible
due to problems with the character’s
mental state or maturity

Is Montresor a reliable or unreliable

narrator? Explain your answer.
 MOOD
• The feelings that the reader
experiences while reading the
story
• Authors use imagery and
descriptive words to create a
mood.
• Specific word choices and
sensory details help create a
mood.
 PASSAGE 1
• “The vaults are insufferably damp. They
are encrusted with nitre.”
– Nitre: potassium nitrate (white
crystalline salt)
• “putting on a mask of black silk and
drawing a roquelaure closely about my
person, I suffered him to hurry me to my
palazzo.”
– Roquelaure: a cloak reaching to the
knees, worn by men in the 18th
century
• “There were no attendants at home.”
• “These orders were sufficient, I well knew,
to insure their immediate disappearance,
one and all, as soon as my back was
turned.”
 • “My own fancy grew
warm with the Medoc.
We has passed
through long walls of
piled skeletons, with
casks and puncheons
intermingling, into the
inmost recesses of the
catacombs.”
• “It (the nitre) hangs
like moss upon the
vaults. We are below
the river’s bed. The
drops of moisture
PASSAGE 2 trickle among the
bones.”
 • “Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault
overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris.”
PASSAGE 3 • “From the fourth side the bones had been thrown down, and
lay promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a
mound of some size.”
• “It seemed to have been constructed for no especial use within
itself.”
 PASSAGE 4
• “a low moaning cry from the
depth of the recess”
• “There was then a long and
obstinate silence.”
• “I heard the furious vibrations
of the chain.”
• “When at last the clanking
subsided, I resumed the
trowel, and finished without
interruption the fifth, the sixth,
and the seventh tier.”
• “threw a few feeble rays upon
the figure within”
Slide Title

Product A Product B
• Feature 1 • Feature 1
• Feature 2 • Feature 2
• Feature 3 • Feature 3