Literary Terms
The central idea or message of a story.
Theme
The narrator's tone when describing Fortunato's expertise.
Sarcastically dismissive and condescending
The significance of Okenwa "recognizing himself" in Raphael.
A shared sense of alienation and passion
The narrator's profession is most likely this.
A journalist or regular trial observer
Hints or clues about what will happen later in a story.
Foreshadowing
A scene that interrupts the present action to depict an earlier event.
Flashback
The "weak point" of Fortunato that Montresor plans to exploit.
His expertise in wine / his connoisseurship
The homemade nunchaku is a powerful symbol of this.
The shared passion and fragile bond between Okenwa and Raphael
The simile "like domes of silence" primarily serves to create this.
A mood of anxious, heavy anticipation
The primary purpose of annotating a text.
To track observations and reach a deeper understanding
The use of an object, person, or place to represent a larger idea.
Symbolism
The meaning of the family motto "Nemo me impune lacessit."
No one attacks me with impunity
Okenwa's primary motivation for betraying Raphael.
Jealousy and the pain of perceived rejection
The moment the witness cannot identify the twin is the climax because it does this.
Dismantles the certainty the narrative built
A figure of speech that makes a direct comparison without "like" or "as".
Metaphor
When the audience knows something critical that a character does not.
Dramatic Irony
The word "immolation" in the story most closely means.
Sacrifice or destruction
The concept of "the danger of a single story" is shown when Okenwa's parents view Raphael only as this.
A servant and a source of infection
The effectiveness of the twist relies most heavily on this literary device.
Situational Irony
The general feeling or atmosphere a writer creates for the reader.
Mood
A central character who lacks conventional heroic attributes.
Anti-hero
The setting of the catacombs creates a mood of.
Claustrophobic horror and impending doom
The adult narrator reveals he is still haunted by this at the end of the story.
Guilt and regret
The ending is intentionally ambiguous to make the reader question these concepts.
Justice, truth, and certainty
The power dynamic between Okenwa and Raphael is most fundamentally defined by this.
Okenwa's social class and Raphael's position as a servant