"... Amontillado" Setting and Plot
The place and time of "The Cask of Amontillado."
What are Italy in the 1700s (and specifically in the catacombs beneath the Montresor estate)?
The place and time of "The Scarlet Ibis."
What are a small rural town in North Carolina and the 1910s (or around World War I)?
Montresor wants _______ against Fortunato for an unspecified insult Fortunato did to him.
What is revenge?
The narrator can be called two different "names" in this short story. Identify both of them.
What are the narrator and Brother?
The scarlet ibis and Doodle both make a long journey only to die at the end of it. In death, they are both fragile-looking and have the color red on them. The scarlet ibis, therefore, is a ______ for Doodle.
What is symbol?
THIS ELEMENT OF PLOT often happens after the exposition, but is present from the very beginning of the story when Montresor says he vowed revenge against Fortunato for an unspecified insult.
What is the conflict?
The conflict of the story is about the narrator struggling with his own feelings of pride/shame regarding his younger brother. In literature, this is known as an __________ conflict.
What is internal?
Montresor tempts Fortunato with a rare wine and tricks him into volunteering to sample it as the wine expert by saying he was on his way to get another man to identify the wine. By doing this, Montresor is appealing to Fortunato's _____.
What is pride?
This character was predicted to die young but did not.
Who is Doodle?
"…like a cardinal in the lacy toothbrush tree…" is an example of THIS type of FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.
What is a simile?
In THIS ELEMENT OF PLOT, Montresor reveals at the end that no one has disturbed the bones of Fortunato for over 50 years.
What is the resolution?
In THIS ELEMENT OF PLOT, the narrator runs back to check on Doodle, who he left behind in the storm, and finds Doodle dead beneath a bush.
What is the resolution?
Several times in the catacombs, Montresor says he cares about Fortunato's health, remarking on his cough and saying they should go back, and that he can always get Luchesi to examine the wine. He knows that he can manipulate Fortunato to keep going if he does this. Saying one thing and meaning another in an English class is referred to as _____.
What is verbal irony?
The narrator describes himself as being full of ______ because he was ashamed of having a younger brother who was crippled and could not do the physical activities that he thought brothers should be able to do, such as running, fighting, and swimming.
What is pride?
"…hope no longer hid…" is an example of THIS type of FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.
What is personification?
THIS ELEMENT OF PLOT starts when Montresor leads Fortunato into the room where he will be chained up and ends when Montresor leaves Fortunato to his fate.
What is the climax?
In THIS ELEMENT OF PLOT, the narrator and Doodle train, and Doodle does not meet the narrator's expectations. A storm hits on the way home, and both boys run. Doodle cannot keep up and calls for his brother to wait, but the narrator wants to punish Doodle for failing and runs faster, leaving him behind in the storm.
What is climax?
Fortunato drinking the alcohol and never suspecting that Montresor had anything but the friendliest intentions toward him, as well as his wearing of the jester outfit, suggests that one of his character traits is ________.
What is foolishness?
Come up with a character trait for Doodle for each statement below. You must get both correct or have appropriate synonyms for them to get the point.
1. The first time Doodle sees Old Woman Swamp, he bursts into tears because, in his view, it is so pretty.
2. Doodle comes up with all sorts of fantastical tales, which the narrator calls "lying." The narrator admits that Doodle could beat him at lying because his own stories were somewhat ordinary.
1. What is sensitive or innocent?
2. What is imaginative?
"... sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis... " is an example of WHICH type of FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE?
What is a metaphor?
In THIS ELEMENT OF PLOT, Montresor reveals that he and Fortunato are or were friends, and that Fortunato prides himself on his expertise in wine. He also introduces the setting as during the carnival season and includes enough Italian words and descriptions that readers can understand the setting of the story.
What is the exposition?
In THIS ELEMENT OF PLOT, the narrator teaches Doodle to walk, though he does it because he is ashamed of Doodle.
What is the rising action?
Come up with a character trait for Montresor for each statement below. You must get both correct or have appropriate synonyms for them to get the point.
1. Montresor tells the reader that he must get revenge on Fortunato without himself being punished. He chooses the carnival season when Fortunato is drunk, uses reverse psychology to make Fortunato want to go to the Amontillado, and takes him through the catacombs under his house where nobody will find his body.
2. When Fortunato begins screaming after he is chained to the wall and is being sealed in, Montresor shouts even louder and longer, implying that nobody can hear Fortunato, and Fortunato gives up.
1. What is clever?
2. What is cruel?
In one scene, the narrator says that Doodle should learn how to do these things before he is around kids at school. Doodle asks if that is really important and the narrator assures him that it is. Identify the two different character traits that are shown here. You must get both (or have appropriate synonyms) to get the point.
What are carefree (Doodle) and self-conscious (the narrator)?
During the events of "The Cask of Amontillado," Montresor and the readers know what Montresor's intentions are, but Fortunato does not figure it out until it is too late and spends a lot of the time accepting Montresor's words at face value. When readers know something that characters in the story do not, it is referred to as ____________.
What is dramatic irony?