Cask of Amontillado

It’s hard to believe that one can read a story and watch a film that mirror each other word

for word yet invoke different emotions from the viewer\reader. However, the short story cask of

Amontillado does just that. The film of Cask of Amontillado makes the mood more dramatic

while the short story brings more irony.

The story Cask of Amontillado is written in old english and is a bit hard to follow, but

once understood the mood becomes easy to realize. The mood that this story gives off is

foreboding. The way the character Montresor plans to kill his friend at the very beginning. “THE

thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I

vowed revenge.” this causes a feeling of dramatic irony when Montresor approaches Fortunato

and convinces Fortunato to go to the catacombs to try the amontillado. As the reader continues

reading the dramatic irony becomes more prominent as Monsour uses reverse psychology on his

friend telling him he should go back and saying ““Come,” I said, with decision, “we will go

back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I

was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I

cannot be responsible. Besides, there is Luchesi——” “Enough,” he said; “the cough is a mere

nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.”” knowing that this will only encourage

him to continue because of his lack in trust of Luchesi’s ability to distinguish wine, and drunk

tendencies. As this continues the reader sees no hope for fortunato's survival.

As for the film it brings on a completely different mood. The film begins the same with

Motresour expressing how he now despises his old friend that wronged him in some way,
However, when Montresor confronts his drunk friend, he sound so sincere that it can trick one

into believing he is genuine. Instead of the mood of dramatic irony, when the reader knows

something the character does not, over the knowledge that fortunato ignorant to his impending

demise it brings a mood of False hope like a strange belief that maybe somehow fortunato will

live. In the film the reader is almost in the place of fortunato in terms of emotions because the

reader gets the feeling of not fully knowing (or believing) that Montresor will kill fortunato. Or

course as Montresour begins fake concern over his obviously ill friend, the reader is somewhat

reminded that this is all Montresor's plan. However, even knowing this Montresor still sounds

completely sincere and concerned over his friend. In this version the reader does not feel that

they know something that fortunato does not but instead feels that fortunato would somehow get

out of this mess with some kind of twist at the end. Even the ending mood is not the same. The

mood of the ending of the film is fear. You can see for the first time how insane Montresor truly

is in the scene when fortunato screams in his overwhelming anguish and Montresor screams back

enjoying his retribution to the fullest extent.

The evidence shows that the short story and the film create completely different moods.

The ways that the story is executed affects how the reader perceives the mood. This is how even

when the story is the same word for word in the book and film, the whole feeling can change.