The falling action of a story consists of the events that
happen after the climax, but before the resolution. In "The Cask of Amontillado," the
climax of the story occurs when Montresor chains Fortunato to the wall of the
catacombs. Fortunato's entrapment is the event that the story has been leading up to
until this point (rising action); now, the story begins to lead downhill, toward the
ending (falling action).
After Fortunato is chained and
Montresor begins to brick his "friend" in. By the time Montresor is ready to position
the last brick, which will seal Fortunato's fate, Fortunato becomes frantic and
desperate, then, finally, unresponsive. Montresor completes his masonry work and
leaves.
The terms "resolution" and "denoument" both refer
to the ending of a story, in which an insight or change is made evident to the reader.
In the case of "The Cask of Amontillado," the resolution is revealed in the last few
sentences:
I
forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I
reeerected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed
them. In pace
requiescat!
The
resolution of this story comes when the reader realizes that Fortunato's murder took
place fifty years ago. He was already dead as Montresor told his
tale.
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