Summary: An Intense Use Of Symbolism In The Story “The Cask of Amontillado”

In the story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe there is an intense use of symbolism that is dark, twisted and has some mystery to it. The story is written in first person, from the perspective of Montresor who is seeking revenge against Fortunato throughout the story. This story primarily focuses on vengeance and mortification. The names of the characters are ironic and also tell us what is going to happen throughout the story. While carnival is often used and represented as a celebration it takes on a whole different meaning in a twisted way.

The coat of arms of the Montresor family also has some symbolism in it. Poe uses symbolism along with irony throughout the conversation of Montresor and Fortunato.

First, Poe uses the names of the characters for the effect of irony and symbolism. For example, Fortunato’s name means ‘the fortunate one’ in Italian. Unfortunately, Fortunato has an unfortunate fate as he is the victim of Montresor’s revenge in this story.

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There is more irony to Fortunato than just his name, the costume that he is wearing of a court jester adds on more irony and symbolism to the story. This adds more into the story because it’s as if he is dressed as a ‘clown’ and Montresor is making a fool of him and mocking him, “He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much. The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.

” (Poe). Then we get to Montresor’s name which means ‘my treasure’ in French. This meaning his treasure he possesses is the perfect vengeance. We also see Montresor wearing a heavy, long cape to envelop Fortunato when they are walking towards the palazzo, this could be seen as a friendly gesture but it is more of a symbolic way of showing Fortunato being ‘captured’.

Secondly, the word carnival is used as a symbolic event ‘celebrating’ the vengeance extracted upon Fortunato. In this story, there is no exact reason why Montresor has this grudge towards Fortunato but there are bits and pieces that pick up it might be relevant to an insult or even public embarrassment. We see with the way that he killed Fortunato in such a torturous and cruel way really how angry he was at him. Poe intentionally left out the motive of why Montresor wanted and did kill Fortunato possibly to make the reader think Montresor could be mentally ill or whether he just had a reason to do so. This all ties back to the word carnival in ways that they define the carnival as ‘supreme madness’, “It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend.” (Poe). More symbolism of the carnival is that it represents the madness within Montresor while the catacombs serve as a journey into death and darkness. A carnival is known to have an atmosphere that includes independence and recklessness and this contradicts the imprisonment of the catacombs.

Thirdly, the Montresor family has their coat of arms followed by its family motto. This shows that the Montresor family is very well off, we also can reinforce this by the size of the family vaults and even that they have multiple servants. Their coat of arms has a golden food on a field of blue, crushing a serpent that is biting the heel of the foot. The golden foot indicates that they are important to themselves and think highly of themselves. The crushing for the snake shows us how vengeful that family is, it is also symbolic of what happens to Fortunato. Somehow and someway Fortunato ‘damaged’ the Montresor’s reputation so Fortunato is shown as the ‘snake’ and Montresor is the ‘heel’ crushing the snake. Now moving on to the motto, “And the motto? / Meno me impune lacessit.” (Poe). This motto translated into English means “no one attacks or injuries me with impunity.” In this story, the motto means that Fortunato’s crimes against Montresor remain indefinite.

At the end of the story we see Montresor’s reaction to the crime that he had just commit, he described it as the following: “My heart grew sick – on account of the dampness of the catacombs.” (Poe). The way that this is written seems to be a confession told years after the actual event. We are never told why Montresor murdered Fortunato, and the fact that it seems this it told as a confession many years later makes it seem that Montresor is punished by guilt.

Works Cited

1. Poe, Edgar Allan. “Edgar Allan Poe.” Literature Network,