Professional Documents
Culture Documents
love of God, thereby employing the same irony that Montresor has effectively used to lure him to the crypts. These are Fortunatos
final words, and the strange desperation that Montresor demonstrates in response suggests that he needs Fortunato more than he wants
to admit. Only when he twice screams Fortunato! loudly, with no response, does Montresor claim to have a sick heart. The reasons
for Fortunatos silence are unclear, but perhaps his willing refusal to answer Montresor is a type of strange victory in otherwise dire
circumstances.
Important Quotations Explained
Fortunato says, Let us be gone. This is ironic because hed have to be a complete fool to think Montresor is going to undo all those
layers of bricks and let him out. Hes hoping against hope.
Montresors reply is even more ironic, Yes, let us be gone. Hes torturing Fortunato with his irony and has been all along. Come to
think of it, hes been torturing us with irony, too. We never know if he means if he means what he says.
Irony is a kind of play. We arent talking about a stage production, but rather, the use of language in a playful way. In this case, the
stylistic play is twisted and creepy.
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Everything takes on symbolic meaning in The Cask. Every detail seems to stand for something else, or to be flashing an encoded,
and no doubt gruesome, message that we are compelled to decipher. The Montresor family coat of arms really stands out, though, for
several reasons.
First lets break down the description. Picture a shield. On it is a picture of a giant gold human foot in a field azure i.e., a blue
field. The foot is crush[ing] a wild and crazy serpent. The serpents fangs are buried in the foots heel. Seems obvious, right?
Fortunato is a snake in the grass, he bit Montresor, and Montresors big gold foot is coming crashing down on him as a result.
Theres that motto to go with it: Nemo me impune lacessit. A quick search of the Internet reveals that this means no one
attacks me with impunity and that its the motto of Scotland!
When we find this out, it becomes pretty obvious that the coat of arms is fabricated. Its Montresors fantasy of what he wants to have
happen, and yet another hint that Fortunato doesnt get. But all that really tells us is what we already know: Montresor lies.
Whats really significant about the arms is the color azure. This is the only color explicitly mentioned that isnt connected to death
and darkness. It literally means sky blue and sky means freedom, especially when we contrast it with the claustrophobic, prison-like
atmosphere of the catacomb.
This also speaks to the theme Drugs and Alcohol. We know that Poe often used his fiction to explore his addictions, one of which
was the drug laudanum. Laudanum comes from poppies often blue ones. The field azure on the arms could be a field of poppies. If
so, it makes all that stuff about freedom seem ironic. If it represents addiction, it represents imprisonment, thus highlighting the storys
tension between freedom and confinement.