What Is the Significance of Montresor's Name Dress Coat of Arms and Family Motto
Symbols
Grade Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe explains the symbols in Edgar Allan Poe'due south short story The Cask of Amontillado.
The Cask of Amontillado | Symbols
The Motley
When Montresor runs into Fortunato on the street, Fortunato is wearing multicolored motley and a cap with bells on it, which is the costume of jesters or fools in the one-time course of Italian theater known as commedia dell'arte. In the drama to come, Fortunato volition exist playing the function of a fool (and he certainly does, missing clue after clue because of his ego).
The Vault
As Montresor guides Fortunato to the vault where he supposedly is storing the Amontillado, he guides him through a literal identify of death. This is the Montresor family catacomb, where members of the family are cached. There is an actual mound of bones in this crypt. While i could store vino in a crypt—the physical weather are similar—one would not look wine that was recently purchased to be stored far, far dorsum in this catacomb. In that location is vino hither, but it is as well a place of death, and bringing Fortunato here foreshadows his fate. Given the strong association of wine with Christian communion, this can likewise exist seen as a nighttime parody of the Christian story of reincarnation. Jesus was placed dead in a tomb but returned live. Fortunato, though, is placed in catacomb live and never returns (except in Montresor's memories).
The Montresor Coat of Artillery and Motto
The Montresor family has both a coat of arms and a family motto. These details are significant in themselves. They indicate the family is likely well established and noble (a fact that is reinforced by the size of the family vaults and the fact that Montresor has multiple servants). The coat of arms and family motto also have specific meanings. The glaze of arms is a golden foot on a field of bluish, burdensome a serpent that is biting the heel of the foot. A aureate foot underscores the family unit'due south self-perception: they are incredibly important (to themselves). Crushing the snake indicates how key revenge is to their family.
The Latin motto, Nemo me impune lacessit, ways "no i attacks or injures me with impunity." This was the motto of the Scottish purple Stuart family, the motto of the chivalrous Scottish Order of the Thistle, and the motto of several Scottish regiments. Historically, Scotland fought confronting occupation by the Romans and the English. Some sources trace the origin of the motto to the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, who was killed past members of the Senate more than so for his potential actions or threat to democracy than anything he had actually washed. Similar Caesar, Fortunato's crimes confronting Montresor remain vague.
The Trowel
The Masons were a widespread congenial organization that started every bit a medieval order (for stonemasons, as the name indicates), but it grew into a more general social organisation. There is a long history of anti-Masonic suspicion, and many stories take circulated nearly it being a secret order and even a mystical i. These attitudes grew and so stiff in 1826 that the Anti-Masonic Party emerged as a political party in the United States. The paradox here is that Fortunato shows past his manus gesture that he is a member of the organization, but when Montresor shows the trowel, he shows he is (or will human activity as) a literal stonemason. Nevertheless, because Fortunato reads this as a joke, he misses the inkling that he'll be entombed alive.
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Source: https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Cask-of-Amontillado/symbols/
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