The Cask of Amontillado
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40 free The Cask of Amontillado trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Cask of Amontillado is one of Edgar Allan Poe's shortest tales and one of his cruellest. Montresor, a nobleman who believes he has been wronged, lures his acquaintance Fortunato deep into the family catacombs with the promise of a rare wine, and only one of them climbs back out. Poe tells it all in the calm voice of the man responsible, which is why the story is still taught in classrooms as a model of irony and suspense. This quiz follows the story from its famous opening sentence to its closing words. Expect questions on the two men and what drives them, the costume, the cellar, the bottles opened on the way down, the family arms and motto, the tools and the trap, and what is said at the very end. A smaller group covers how and why Poe wrote the tale, where it first appeared, and the films, fiction and music that have borrowed from it. Students can use it as a comprehension check before a test, teachers get a ready-made multiple choice set to print, and ELL students will find every answer explained in a plain sentence or two. The opening questions are the gentlest, and later ones reward a close reading of the text.
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Q 01Its title names a foreign wine, but in which country is The Cask of Amontillado usually said to take place?
Italy
Italy is the usual reading, though Poe never names the place. Montresor sneers that few Italians have real taste, and says most fake it to fool rich foreigners.
Q 02Amontillado, the bait in Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, is a variety of which fortified wine?
Sherry
Sherry is the very wine Fortunato sneers that a rival cannot tell from Amontillado. The boast undercuts the supposed expert, because Amontillado is itself one of its varieties.
Q 03During which festive season does Montresor meet a drunken Fortunato in The Cask of Amontillado?
Carnival
Carnival gives Montresor perfect cover: Fortunato is already drunk and in costume, and the servants have slipped away to join the fun. The house stands empty when the two men arrive.
Q 04What costume has the drunken Fortunato chosen for the festival in The Cask of Amontillado?
A court jester
A court jester's motley is what Fortunato has on, a tight striped suit and a pointed cap. Poe sends the self-styled expert to his death dressed, quite literally, as a fool.
Q 05The Montresor arms in The Cask of Amontillado show a gold foot crushing which heel-biting creature?
A serpent
A serpent sinks its fangs into the very foot that crushes it. The image reads two ways: Montresor as the foot stamping out an offender, or as the biter striking back at the man who trod on him.
Q 06Asked for a secret sign in The Cask of Amontillado, which tool does Montresor pull from his cloak?
A trowel
A trowel is no secret sign at all: it is the tool Montresor will use minutes later to seal his victim in. Fortunato recoils a few paces, then insists they press on to the wine.
Q 07What are Fortunato's last words in The Cask of Amontillado, which Montresor repeats back to him?
For the love of God
"For the love of God, Montresor!" is the victim's last desperate plea. "Yes," Montresor answers, "for the love of God!", then calls his name twice and gets no reply.
Q 08When his victim toasts the buried dead in The Cask of Amontillado, what does Montresor drink to?
Fortunato's long life
Fortunato's long life is the toast, offered by the one man who knows how short it will be. Poe fills the walk with such double meanings: Montresor also calls him "a man to be missed".
Q 09How long has Fortunato's tomb lain undisturbed when Montresor narrates The Cask of Amontillado?
Fifty years
Fifty years have passed, which turns the whole story into an old man's confession. Poe never reveals who is listening, only that it is someone who knows "the nature of my soul".
Q 10What is the meaning of "In pace requiescat", the Latin that ends The Cask of Amontillado?
May he rest in peace
"May he rest in peace" sounds like a blessing, yet it comes from the man who sealed him in. It is the tale's final line, and it never settles whether Montresor is gloating or uneasy.
Q 11In The Cask of Amontillado, Fortunato tests Montresor with the secret gesture of which brotherhood?
The Freemasons
The Freemasons are the brotherhood, and Montresor does not know their sign. When he insists he is a mason too, Fortunato scoffs "You? Impossible!" and demands proof.
Q 12Once Fortunato enters the niche in The Cask of Amontillado, how does Montresor stop him leaving?
Chains him to the rock
Montresor chains him to the rock in seconds, with a short chain and padlock already fixed to the granite. Fortunato is too astounded to resist, and still asks after the Amontillado.
Q 13In The Cask of Amontillado, which ailment of Fortunato's does Montresor use to urge turning back?
Q 21Which French wine does Montresor serve first in The Cask of Amontillado, breaking the bottle's neck?
Medoc
Medoc, from the vineyards north-west of Bordeaux, is offered as a defence against the chill of the vaults. Its real job is to keep Fortunato drunk enough to go on walking.
Q 22The remains lining Montresor's crypt in The Cask of Amontillado recall the catacombs of which city?
Paris
Paris is Poe's comparison, a touch of the real world in a city he never names. Its catacombs hold the remains of more than six million people, moved from overflowing cemeteries.
Q 23Where had Montresor hidden the stone and mortar he uses in The Cask of Amontillado?
Under a pile of bones
A bad cough
A bad cough racks Fortunato in the cold vaults, yet each time Montresor urges him home he insists on going deeper. He even says it will not kill him, and Montresor agrees: "True — true."
Q 14Near the end of The Cask of Amontillado, a sobered Fortunato laughs and calls his ordeal what?
A practical joke
A practical joke is the way out he offers Montresor, something to laugh about later over wine at the palazzo. Montresor merely echoes his words, then forces the last stone into place.
Q 15In The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor drops a torch into the silent tomb and hears only what?
Jingling bells
Jingling bells from the cap of Fortunato's costume are the only answer Montresor ever gets. They had rung all through the walk down, which makes the last faint sound far more chilling.
Q 16The Cask of Amontillado opens with Montresor bearing a thousand injuries until Fortunato ventures upon what?
Insult
Insult is the only motive Montresor ever gives, and he never says what it was. Poe leaves it so vague that some commentators conclude the narrator is simply insane.
Q 17Which rival wine taster does Montresor threaten to consult instead in The Cask of Amontillado?
Luchesi
Luchesi never appears, yet his name does the work: each mention makes Fortunato more determined to prove himself the better judge. Fortunato finally dismisses him as "an ignoramus".
Q 18How does Montresor make sure his servants leave the house empty in The Cask of Amontillado?
Ordering them to stay in
Ordering them to stay in was the trick: Montresor said he would be away until morning and forbade them to stir from the house. He knew they would all vanish the moment his back was turned.
Q 19What does Montresor's family motto in The Cask of Amontillado, "Nemo me impune lacessit", mean?
No one provokes me with impunity
"No one provokes me with impunity" is a warning Fortunato hears and cheerfully ignores, answering only "Good!". Poe may have lifted the Latin from James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans.
Q 20Which white mineral hangs "like moss" on the vault walls in The Cask of Amontillado?
Nitre
Nitre is potassium nitrate, a soft white mineral found in caves, and here it lets Montresor play the worried host. He keeps pointing it out, urging Fortunato to turn back, and is refused every time.
Under a pile of bones is where the supplies were waiting, proof that the crime was planned well ahead. Afterwards Montresor stacks the same remains back against the fresh wall to hide it.
Q 24When his heart grows sick at the end of The Cask of Amontillado, what does Montresor blame?
The damp air
The damp air gets the blame: Montresor feels a sickness of heart and at once dismisses it. He then hurries to force the last stone into place and plaster it up.
Q 25Before the walk to his palazzo in The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor dons a cloak and what else?
A black silk mask
A black silk mask covers Montresor's face for the walk home, a fitting disguise for a man who wants to punish without being caught. The cloak, a roquelaire, hides something he needs later.
Q 26Which measure of wine, about 130 gallons, does Montresor say he bought in The Cask of Amontillado?
A pipe
A pipe was a huge barrel, which is why Fortunato cries "Impossible!" at the idea of so much Amontillado turning up in mid-festival. Montresor adds that he paid in full before having it tasted.
Q 27Which word names Fortunato's fate in The Cask of Amontillado, being walled up alive?
Immurement
Immurement and mural both come from murus, the Latin for wall. Unlike ordinary live burial, where the air soon runs out, a walled-in victim is left to die slowly of thirst or hunger.
Q 28The Cask of Amontillado has been read as a dark tale in support of which 19th-century cause?
Temperance
Temperance was the cause of the Washingtonians, reformed drinkers who tried to scare people off alcohol. Poe may have promised to join them in 1843 after a drinking bout.
Q 29Which country's motto, once seen on pound coins, do the Montresors use in The Cask of Amontillado?
Scotland
Scotland has long used the line, which is also the motto of its Order of the Thistle. Poe had a link of his own: John Allan, the merchant who raised him, was born in Ayrshire.
Q 30Which magazine, then America's most popular periodical, first printed The Cask of Amontillado?
Godey's Lady's Book
Godey's Lady's Book, a Philadelphia monthly of poetry, articles and engravings, ran the tale in November 1846. Its editor was Sarah Josepha Hale, author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb".