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What does the word "cask" remind you of? Before reading, we can look at the title for clues. Cask sort of sounds like casket.

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However, Poe is referring to a cask or barrel of

amontillado, an expensive white wine. Already we know the story involves alcohol and possibly death.

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The story begins in the streets of an unnamed Italian city during Carnival. Published in 1919, we can start to imagine what the streets, cars, and buildings would look like.

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Carnival is a celebration or feast before Lent, where people abstained from eating meat.

Carn = meat, val = farewell
During the season of Carnival, people eat and drink excessively.

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People dressed up in elaborate costumes and masks to mock the upper class and express a heightened sense of individuality.

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Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the main day of Carnival.

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Why would this be a good time for Montresor to commit a crime?

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Why would this be a good time for Montresor to commit a crime?

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The story's second setting is the catacombs below the city. Back when diseases such as the Black Plague killed thousands of people in short periods, catacombs were created to replace formal burials.

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In some cases, cemeteries were flooded or torn down, so hundreds of thousands of bones were moved to catacombs.

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"I took down from their places on the wall two brightly burning lights. I gave one of these to Fortunato and led him to a wide doorway. There we could see the stone steps going down into the darkness. Asking him to be careful as he followed, I went down before him, down under the ground, deep under the old walls of my palace."

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"We could see the bones of the dead lying in large piles along the walls. The stones of the walls were wet and cold."

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"Finally we arrived at a vault in which the air was so old and heavy that our lights almost died. Against three of the walls there were piles of bones higher than our heads. From the fourth wall someone had pulled down all the bones, and they were spread all around us on the ground. In the middle of the wall was an opening into another vault, if I can call it that—a little room about three feet wide, six or seven feet high, and perhaps four feet deep. It was hardly more than a hole in the wall."

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"I continued working. I could hear him pulling at the chain, shaking it wildly. Only a few stones remained to put in their place."

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What is the significance of Fortunado's costume? He's dressed like a jester, typically referred to as the fool. It foreshadows Montresor's betrayal.

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Montresor mentions his family crest while walking in the catacombs. He says it is a foot stepping on a snake, whose fangs are deep in the foot's heel.
Nemo me impune lacessit = "No one attacks me with impunity"
How does this represent Montresor and Fortunado's relationship?