In Edgar Allan Poe’s work, A Cask of Amontillado, one of his most popular works, we observe the unwarranted vengeance of a man named Montresor against his foe Fortunato. Poe uses several literary elements to best express how Montresor gets his revenge, environment and garb worn by the two characters. They enhance the setting, foreshadowing and symbolism in the story to create the overall theme; the theme being that madness will consume you and drive you to unspeakable acts. In A Cask of amontillado, Poe uses three literary elements to express the outcome and process in which Montresor schemes to kill Fortunato, verbal irony, dramatic irony, and foreshadowing. Irony plays an important role in The Cask of Amontillado, the first form of irony Poe uses is dramatic irony, when the narrator Montresor is plotting on how he will keep a straight face before his victim Fortunato “to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation.” (poe 236). this thought of Montresor’s foreshadows that Fortunato will be entirely unaware of …show more content…
Catching the foreshadowing can bring attention that the story involves the death of a person. The second instance of foreshadowing is the very first sentence “THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (Poe 236). This statement was leading the reader to believe this Fortunato was the one going to die. Another example of foreshadowing is that when the two main character descent deeper into Montresor’s vaults and the flambeaux (torch) begins to glow instead of flame, this is a symbol leading the reader to assume that the deeper Fortunato goes the more his “flame” will burn out, the flame being his