Issac Newton said that “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”(Newton). “The Cask of Amontillado” written by Edgar Allan Poe is a story about hidden intrinsic lunacy of human by applying 3 literary devices to explain its theme: irony, symbolism and foreshadowing. Through the literary devices, the story succeeded to reveal peculiar atmosphere, features of characters and an allusion to Fortunato’s death. To start with the first literary device, “The Cask of Amontillado” used 2 kinds of ironies such as verbal and situational irony to imply Montresor’s murder plan. To quote, the jingling bells upon a cap of ‘Fortunato’ are verbal irony because the material reveals farcicality of clown though the content describes death of ‘Fortunato’ which …show more content…
For example, Fortunato wore tight-fitting parti-striped dress, conical cap and bells at the carnival season. The silly outfit of Fortunato revealed his foolish personality which supports the content of the story that he was too dull to realize Montresor’s murder plan. Also, to quote 4th paragraph of the story, “one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season” (Poe) represents extreme madness of Montresor. Another example that shows insane personality of Montresor is the city where the murder occurs. The city is enthusiastic about the carnival (positive) which is apparently different from catacombs (negative) that are placed underground of the city. The evidence satisfies the claim because Montresor seems to be kind toward Fortunato but the fact is that he is a hypocrite. To be specific, the manic setting of the story silently explains abnormal insanity of Montresor’s inner sider and the murder plan. Therefore, symbols of silliness of Fortunato and insane characteristic of Montresor are used in “The Cask of Amontillado” to avoid explaining the personality of 2 characters