Session 6 · The Cask of Amontillado

Sessions 1 · Structure 2 · The Necklace 3 · Comparative literature 4 · The Gift of the Magi 5 · The Interlopers 6 · The Cask of Amontillado Evaluation Teacher

Worksheet of this session
Scan to open it on a phone or print it.

Recap check · marked · starts as you come in

Sit down, take your notebook and answer on paper at once. 3 students are drawn at random and marked.

What is a feud?
What traps the two men?
What is the last word of the story?

Marking scale	Points
Each correct answer	1
Full sentence in English	bonus 1
Total	3 + 1

Corrigé

a long quarrel between families
a falling beech tree
Wolves

The story

Portrait — Edgar Allan Poe, about 1849, Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Carnival in an Italian city. Montresor swears revenge on Fortunato and invites him into his family catacombs to taste a rare wine. The darkest of our four stories.

Read the full text of The Cask of Amontillado (public domain)

Describe and interpret the picture

Look at the illustration at the top of the page. You can see: a vaulted cellar, wine casks, a torch, a niche half closed by bricks, bones, a jester's cap with bells.

Describe the picture in three sentences.
What elements create Poe's dark effect? Which detail is ironic?
Find one sentence of the text that matches the picture.

Useful phrases: It shows… · In the foreground / background… · The colours suggest… · This reminds me of the moment when… · It reveals that… · I think the artist wants us to feel…

Corrigé

Darkness, damp, bones, the half built wall. The jester's cap is ironic: Fortunato, dressed as a fool, walks into the trap.

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.”
Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”, Project Gutenberg #1063

1. Vocabulary

Word	Meaning	En français
revenge	punishment for a wrong done to you	vengeance
insult	words that hurt someone's honour	insulte
carnival	a festival with masks and costumes	carnaval
cask	a large wooden barrel for wine	tonneau, fût
catacombs	underground tunnels with tombs	catacombes
damp	slightly wet	humide
niche	a small space in a wall	niche, renfoncement
trowel	a tool to spread mortar	truelle
to chain	to attach with metal links	enchaîner
unreliable narrator	a storyteller we cannot fully trust	narrateur non fiable

2. Characters

Character	Who?	Wants	What happens
Montresor	narrator, a nobleman	perfect revenge without punishment	walls Fortunato in alive
Fortunato	a proud wine expert	to taste the Amontillado	buried alive in the vault
Luchresi	a rival connoisseur, never seen	nothing	a name used as bait

3. The arc of the story

Stage	In this story
Exposition	Montresor promises revenge for an insult.
Inciting incident	He meets Fortunato, drunk, at the carnival.
Rising action	They descend into the catacombs; Montresor pretends concern.
Climax	Montresor chains Fortunato in a niche and builds a wall.
Resolution and twist	Fifty years later, no one has found the bones.

4. Text dependent questions

What does the narrator want, and on what conditions?
How does Montresor lure Fortunato?
Find two examples of irony in Fortunato's costume or name.
Why does Montresor keep suggesting they go back?
Describe the final scene.
Is Montresor a reliable narrator? Justify.

Corrigé

Revenge, but he must punish without being punished, and the victim must know who punishes him.
He flatters his pride as a wine expert and mentions a rival, Luchresi, so Fortunato insists on coming.
He wears a jester's costume with bells, a fool going to his death; his name means “fortunate”.
Reverse psychology: it makes Fortunato more determined, and Montresor appears caring.
Montresor chains Fortunato in a niche, builds a wall stone by stone and leaves him in darkness.
No: he never explains the insult, he is telling the story fifty years later and seems to justify himself; his “heart grew sick” may hint at guilt.

5. Speaking

Hot seat: one student is Montresor, fifty years later. The class asks him questions about that night. He must answer in character.

6. Writing

Write Fortunato's point of view in the last minutes (100 to 120 words). Build suspense with short sentences.

Homework · required

To do for next lesson. It is checked at the start of the lesson in the Recap check.

Exercise 1 · Gap-fill: Montresor wants …… . He meets Fortunato during the …… . They go down into the …… . Montresor uses a …… to build the wall. (revenge, carnival, catacombs, trowel)
Exercise 2 · Answer: give two reasons why Montresor is an unreliable narrator.
Exercise 3 · Revise for the evaluation: write ten words from the four vocabulary tables with their meaning.

Corrigé of the homework

revenge · carnival · catacombs · trowel
He never explains the insult; he tells the story fifty years later to justify himself.
Any ten words of the tables with correct definitions.

For the teacher

Gerex step	What the class does
Warm up (5 min)	Recall of the last story in three sentences, cold calling or volunteers.
Discovery (15 min)	Reading of the text or extract of The Cask of Amontillado, first with a gist question.
Analysis (20 min)	Tables in pairs, text dependent questions, shared correction.
Speaking (10 min)	Short oral task, the teacher circulates and notes two strengths per group.
Writing (5 min + homework)	Short writing task, finished at home.

Need	Lever
Struggling readers	Glossary given in advance, audio reading by the teacher, questions 1 to 3 only.
Fast finishers	Extension question, a quotation to explain, a sentence of the story to translate into French.
Dys students	Dys version of the page: Lexend font, larger spacing, sentence starters, shorter tasks.

Recap check, how to run it	Detail
Before the bell	The questions are on the board or projected when students walk in.
Minutes 0 to 4	Everyone writes; no talking. The teacher takes the register meanwhile.
Minute 4	Random draw of three names (cards, app or dice), oral answers.
Marking	Marks on the scale given, noted in the gradebook; homework checked at the same time.
Why	Not one idle minute: the class starts the moment students enter, and homework is reinforced.

Sessions 1 · Structure 2 · The Necklace 3 · Comparative literature 4 · The Gift of the Magi 5 · The Interlopers 6 · The Cask of Amontillado Evaluation Teacher

Reminder, the sequence online: https://short-stories-anglais.netlify.app