Summary of "The Cask of Amontillado"

Here is a great summary of "The Cask of Amontillado". 

Creepy Amontillado

I will tell you the mood in "The Cask of Amontillado" - creepy.  Is there another word, maybe, but in the end it boils down to the same thing.  The story is creepy.  Nobody does stuff like Montresor without being totally messed up.

Fortunato Fortunatus

So sometimes you see somebody in a movie or read about somebody in a story who gets killed and you are like - yeah, he deserved that.  Fortunato, is not one of those people.  Poe completely mocks the poor guy, and Montresor totally just kills him and you are sitting there wondering - WTF?

What did Fortunato do to piss him off so bad?  The guy seems nice enough.  He could have said "piss off, its carnival, get Luchesi to help your ignorant ass."  But instead he says, hey, I'll follow you down into your cold, damp, stinky catacombs to sort out your stupid buying practices.  A nice guy!  And what does he get in return?  Death.  Poe - you are messed up!

Pronunciation of "The Cask of Amontillado"

Obviously the words cask, the, and of do not require additional assistance, but students always struggle with saying amontillado. Amontillado refers to a Spanish wine so it is a Spanish word and should probably be pronounced the Spanish way.

Poe, however, wrote the story for Italian characters and it is likely that his characters would use an Italian pronunciation so if you Italianize it then you won't be far off the mark.  In the end it doesn't much matter.  If you just wanted to substitute the word root beer you could, though it might take away from the mood of the story a little bit.

Montresor

Here is an article that analyzes Montresor.  I don't care what anyone says, that dude was messed up!  He took his friend, somebody who trusted him, and led him into the catacombs beneath his house and buried him alive!  That is not something a normal person does.  Period!  If you have a beef with someone you work it out, you talk it out, or you sue his ass!  You do not bury him under your house.