Montresor's Enclosure System

The Cask of Amontillado was a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe about Montresor who saw another man at the carnival named Fortunato as someone who had done wrong to him and decided to seek revenge. Montresor murdered the man by luring him into catacombs under his home and burying him alive in a deep hole. According to the literary critic Cynthia Biley, Montresor had two faces which allowed him to easily trick and lure Fortunato to his death. Another critic, Leonard Engel believed that Poe used enclosure to justify Montresor’s feelings and actions towards killing Fortunato. Throughout the beginning of the story, Montresor introduces a rare wine, Amontillado to another man at the carnival who he believed deserved retribution. Fortunato

An enclosure is any physical confinement that restricts a character to a specific area. The catacombs located under a house influenced Montresor’s thoughts and added to the plot of the story. "We had passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs...” (Poe, 4). Edgar Allen Poe described the setting of the story to portray the enclosure which Montresor was in. "The noise lasted for several minutes, during which, that I might hearken to it with the more satisfaction, I ceased my labors and sat down upon the bones" (Poe, 5). Montresor was pleasured by the noise of Fortunato’s pain and enjoyed torturing him as he sat down on the bones in his enclosure. Engel stated that Montresor did hesitate to continue but the enclosure relived him as he continued his scheme with satisfaction. “The frantic screams of Fortunato momentarily disturb Montresor, until he is reassured by the thought of the locale—the enclosures—and "the solid fabric of the catacombs"” (Engel, 13). Montresor enjoys the satisfaction of killing his victim because he was jealous of him which makes Fortunato the scapegoat. Although the murderer experienced moments of horror and regret throughout his revenge plot he used the catacombs and gloomy atmosphere to comfort him. Therefore, his enclosure influenced his perspective and actions in his murder