In The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor gives two hints about what is about to happen: the nitre affecting Fortunato's health and the trowel that he has beneath his cloak.
One of the things Montresor says when he is initially telling Fortunato about the Amontillado is that his vaults are lined with nitre (also known as saltpeter or potassium nitrate), which he says after mentioning Fortunato's "severe cold". Nitre can be harmful if inhaled, so...
In The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor gives two hints about what is about to happen: the nitre affecting Fortunato's health and the trowel that he has beneath his cloak.
One of the things Montresor says when he is initially telling Fortunato about the Amontillado is that his vaults are lined with nitre (also known as saltpeter or potassium nitrate), which he says after mentioning Fortunato's "severe cold". Nitre can be harmful if inhaled, so it could potentially be fatal to someone with a severe cold - especially in Poe's time, when modern medicine was not as good as it is now. However, Fortunato brushes it off as unnecessary concern for his health, saying that the nitre matters not, nor does his cold, so they should go anyways.
The other hint Montresor gives is the trowel he pulls from beneath his roquelaire towards the end of their journey through the vaults. This trowel will be used to help Montresor stack the bricks and mortar that will wall Fortunato into the vault, but when Fortunato first sees it, he thinks it is a sign that Montresor is a mason (as in a member of the Freemasonry, not a stone worker).
In the end, Fortunato's dismissal of these two subtle hints has him walk straight into his own death.
No comments:
Post a Comment