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False Concern
Constantly throughout the story Montresor suggests to Fortunato that it would be better for him not to check the cask of amontillado. He first uses the pretense that he does not want to interrupt Fortunato’s carnival plans, feigning politeness. He then acknowledges Fortunato’s apparent health issues, worrying about his cough in the cold of the vault. As Fortunato’s cough intensifies, Montresor’s feigned concern increases, and he describes Fortunato’s popularity and wealth, hinting that to go further will kill him. From a characterization perspective, these moments demonstrate Montresor’s cunning. His use of reverse psychology actually makes Fortunato less likely to turn back because it plays on Fortunato’s pride. Stylistically, these pauses help build suspense and terror because of their dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is a type of irony in which the audience knows the full significance of a word or action, but the character is not aware. Every suggestion that perhaps Fortunato should turn back is a moment he could have escaped. We as readers can do nothing to warn him but watch as he goes closer and closer to his doom.
Alcohol
Aside from the titular amontillado, alcohol appears multiple times throughout the story. Fortunato is already quite drunk when he appears, and he insists that he is a better wine connoisseur than Luchesi. While in the vault, Montresor offers Fortunato wine twice more, some Médoc and De Grâve, both wines from the Bordeaux region of France. Primarily this motif serves to characterize Fortunato as a drunk, easily motivated by the promise of more wine, and perhaps even suggest that Montresor’s initial description of Fortunato as a wine “connoisseur” is sarcastic. Some scholars have read the alcohol imagery in this story as an indicator of Fortunato’s lack of sophistication. Amontillado is a type of sherry, and thus his comment about Luchesi’s inability to tell the two apart makes little sense. He’s also later described gulping down the De Grâve wine quickly, despite wine from Grâves being considered expensive. However, it’s unclear whether Poe himself had this kind of wine knowledge. Instead, the alcohol may simply add to the dread of the situation, by emphasizing that Fortunato is impaired as Montresor leads him through the vault.
Death and Decay
Upon reaching the vaults, Montresor makes multiple references to the signs of decay within. The vault is damp, suggesting mold. Montresor describes these vaults as being set up like the catacombs in Paris, so that skeletal remains are quite literally embedded into the walls. Skulls likely peer down at the two men as they pass. Bones also appear strewn about the floor. Montresor consistently references the nitre in the vault. Nitre, a mineral form of saltpeter, is often found in caves as a byproduct of decaying matter. In this case, we can be fairly certain the nitre comes from the decaying bodies. Montresor comments that the nitre increases as they go deeper. His comment that they are “below the river’s bed,” further highlights the damp cold of the vault. It also evokes the River Styx, the entrance to the underworld, again signifying the death’s nearness. This deathly atmosphere creates a sense of dread and foreshadows Fortunato’s impending death.
