We had to read 'The Cast of Amontillado' for a class and i had a hard time understanding it. I need help in trying to summarizing the story within 6 sentences. ~Christina

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2000

Answers

Dear Christina,

6 sentence summary of "The Cask of Amontillado":

1. The narrator decides that he is determined to get "Fortunato" back for insulting him. 2. He lies to Fortunato (who is dressed as a fool, which implies the narrator is to make a fool out of him), telling him that he has a cask of Amontillado, a type of sherry. 3. Fortunato believes that the narrator may have been conned by the person who sold him the Amontillado, and the two men go to his catacombs (an underground place which is used for the burial of the dead), to see whether it is genuine. 4. While on their way through the catacombs, Fortunato asks the narrator if he is a member of the masons, to which the narrator produces a trowel - although Fortunato doesn't understand this, the narrator is saying that he is a mason because of what he will do to him at the end of the story, not because he's a member of the masons, which is what Fortunato meant. 5. They come to a recess at the end of the catacombs, in which the narrator promises the Amontillado lies, and when Fortunato climbs into it, the narrator chains him to the masonry and builds a wall in front of the recess, shutting him in forever. 6. The narrator's family motto, "Nemo me impune lacessit", is Latin for, "Nobody assails me without impunity", which, as well as being the national motto of Scotland (possibly an obscure reference to Poe's foster-father, John Allan, who was Scottish), also sums up the theme of the story, that is, revenge.

Yours,

Joe

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2000