![]() But, he reassures himself that the structure is sound. ![]() They clank.Ī series of loud and shrill screams emanate from Fortunato after he is walled in Montesor jabs his sword into the recess. There are vibrations of the chain that last for several eerie minutes. Once fettered to the wall of the small recess, Fortunato utters a “low moaning cry” which is “not the cry of a drunken man,” then followed by “a long and obstinate silence.” He then places a “rampart of bones.”įortunato coughs with imbecilic sounds, “Ugh! ugh! ugh!”Īll the while that the men traverse the corridors of the catacombs, Fortunato’s fool’s bells “jingle.” He makes tier after tier of stone until he reaches the eleventh, struggling with the last stone to be plastered.įinally, after Fortunato cries, laughs, and pleads, Montesor positions the stone and plasters it. Montesor places his hands on the “solid facric of the catacombs,” testing its soundness. A few “feeble rays” of light fall upon the victim within. Here Montesor fetters Fortunato with chains to two iron staples.Īfter he walls in Fortunato with building stone and mortar, Montesor holds the flambeaux and inspects his work. The men enter a small recess with two “colossal supports” and walls of granite. When Fortunato makes the movements of the secret sign of the Masons, Montesor ridicules him by holding a mason’s trowel in a sinister pun.īones lay “pomiscuously upon the earth forming at one point a mound of some size,” perhaps foreshadowing what Fortunato’s bones will do. They pass large casks of wine and the niter is throughout the catacombs, hanging like moss. Underneath this is the same motto as that of the royal arms of Scotland, “No one assails me with impunity.” There is the Montesor coats of arms: a golden human foot in a field of azure (blue) that crushes a moving snake whose fangs are embedded in the heel of the foot. Montesor, wears a black silk mask and a dark cloak while Fortunato, who is later completely fooled, wears the harlequin costume of a court jester, or fool.Įntering the catacombs that are dark with “two flambeaux” which cast eerie shadows, the men descend a long, winding staircase which leads to damp ground.įortunato looks at Montesor with eyes described as “two filmy orbs that distilled the rheum of intoxication.” Start your subscription to unlock this answer and thousands more. Employing Gothic conventions in his story “The Cask of Amontillado,” with the sinister appearance of Montesor and the foreboding, dark catacombs and its dampness and niter, Edgar Allan Poe generates an atmosphere of terror with visual and sound imagery supplementing these conventions. ![]()
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