Themes are explored in The Cask of Amontillado?

Love and Hate:

Many of the crimes of Poe's protagonists are particularly detestable because they involve the death of someone whom they formerly loved. The narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" claims that he loved the old man but reveals his madness and evil tendencies through his systematic terrorizing and murder of the old man, which he excuses by citing the old man's evil eye. Similarly, the narrator's affection for Pluto and his wife in "The Black Cat" and William Wilson's natural affinity toward his double turn into loathing and rage as the characters sink into alcoholism and sin. In other cases, as with "The Oval Portrait," the victim dies not from murder but from neglect; the painter loves his wife but is overtaken by his devotion to his painting and thus destroys what he loves for the sake of art. Finally, Poe introduces villain protagonists such as Montresor of "The Cask of Amontillado" who hate their enemies but whose hate becomes even more sinister and implacable because they mask it with signs of affection. Montresor's false solicitousness for Fortunato's health is ultimately revealed as a ploy to lure Fortunato to his death. In all of these cases, love and hate are shown to be closely connected, as one can easily turn into the other without warning.