1. The Cask of Amontillado
by Edgar Allan Poe
Cultural Literacy
and
Background for Understanding

2. “…but when he ventured upon
insult, I vowed revenge.”
“The Cask of Amontillado” is the
narrator’s account of his ability to
carry out a chilling plot of
revenge against his offender.

3. Precision in time, place, and
setting preclude the idea of risk
and allow the narrator both the
retribution he seeks and the
impunity he demands.

4. Carnival

5. Carnival
• Carnival is a secular holiday, but it evolved
from the Christian observance known as
Lent.
• Lent is a solemn forty-day period of fasting
prior to Easter.

6. CARNIVAL
• Traditionally, the fasting during Lent
involves abstaining from eating meat.
• Modern interpretations of fasting may
involve abstaining from anything one
enjoys.

7. Carn + Val
FLESH (Meat) + FAREWELL
In anticipation of the solemnity of Lent, the
celebration of Carnival evolved.
Participants engage in excessive and extreme
behavior to bid farewell to meat-eating
(and merriment).

9. What happens during Carnival?
• Carnival is a time of EXCESS and
INDULGENCE.
• BINGEING upon food and alcohol is common.

10. Partying in the streets and
masquerading are enjoyed.

12. The combination of alcohol and
costumes creates an atmosphere
where people tend to let down
their inhibitions.

14. European Carnival traditions
survive in the United States in the
form of Mardi Gras.

15. “The Cask of Amontillado” is set
during the “supreme madness” of
Carnival.
In such a riotous atmosphere, it is
easy to see how a crime could go
unnoticed.

16. Lifestyles of the Rich
Circa 1700-1800

17. The wealthy class enjoyed
indulgences such as
• Gemmary

18. Painting

19. Palazzos (mansions)
•

20. Fine Wine (vintages)

21. Vineyards, where the grapes for
producing wine are grown, create
picturesque settings for owners’
estates.

24. The narrator plans for his revenge
to take place in the catacombs
beneath his estate.
What are catacombs?

25. Catacombs: Cities of the Dead

26. At a certain point in European
history, catacombs, underground
burial chambers, became a viable
alternative to cemeteries.

28. Catacombs are characterized by
extensive tunnels leading to
chambers or recesses where the
dead repose for eternity.

30. The wealthy could opt for family
catacombs beneath their estates.

31. The narrator of “The Cask of
Amontillado” carries out his
revenge within the catacombs
beneath his palazzo.

32. The narrator is able to lure his
victim into the catacombs with
the promise of amontillado, a
fine sherry wine.
(The l’s are pronounced like the
l’s in tortilla.)

33. The “supreme madness” of
Carnival aside, why doesn’t the
suggestion of a journey to the
catacombs for a taste of wine
seem odd or suspicious to the
victim?

34. The Storage of Wine

35. For wines to maintain their best
quality, they need to be stored at
fairly cool and constant
temperatures.

37. During the time period in which
the story is set, modern electric
refrigeration was not available.
To protect wine collections,
connoisseurs adopted the practice
of storing wines under the ground
where temperatures remain ideal
year-round.

38. Basements, cellars, and even
catacombs serve as excellent
storage facilities for the precious
vintages.

40. Herein, where wine bottles
intermingle with the bones of the
dead, the narrator carries out his
plan for revenge.

43. Edgar Allan Poe
• Author, not the narrator,
of the story.
• Developed characters
whose sanity is
questionable.
• Universally credited
as a significant
contributor to the
development of the short
story as a literary genre.

44. “The Cask of Amontillado”
A legend holds that the inspiration for "The Cask of Amontillado" came from a
story Poe had heard at Castle Island in Massachusetts when he was a private there
in 1827 (Bergen 106). According to this legend, Poe was told the story of a brawl
in which one lieutenant named Drane killed another officer, named Massie, after a
disagreement at cards. Some versions of the legend hold that Drane was
subsequently buried alive by friends of Massie, but this report appears to be an
inaccuracy influenced by Poe's story, as Drane is known to have been alive years
later. A report of a skeleton discovered on the island may be a confused
remembering of Poe's major source, Joel Headley's "A Man Built in a Wall,"
which recounts the author's seeing an immured skeleton in the wall of a church in
Italy (Mabbott 1254).

45. Sources
Coil, Suzanne M. Mardi Gras (photos by Michael Osborne). New York: Macmillan, 1994.
France: A Culinary Journey. San Francisco: Collins, 1992.
Poe, Edgar A. “The Cask of Amontillado” Literature. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ
1998.
“Underground Paris: The Catacombs.” www.triggur.org.