Irony In Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado

In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allan Poe uses diction and irony to create a suspenseful and sinister mood to further keep his readers in a state of suspense.
Throughout the story, it remains a mystery as to why the narrator has such hatred toward Fortunato. In the beginning of the story, Poe uses diction that appeals to the audience by including words relating to acts of revenge. “You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged.” And then he says, “I must not only punish but punish with impunity” (pg 866). The narrator is addressing to the reader like his friend, trying to appeal to us the feeling of acting upon revenge, how we have felt the need of vengeance upon another. This use of language gives the reader an understanding of the narrator’s state of mind, how obsessed he is in the act of his unspecified revenge to the point that it seems like he is thinking like a madman. This builds up the dark and ominous tone towards the narrator’s act of revenge on Fortunato. "The man wore motley. He had on a

In other words, he is dressed like a court jester or clown. Poe further puts dicton into effect by putting Fortunato into dressing him in a fool 's costume to demonstrate how Fortunato, who is anything but fortunate, is foolishly following Montresor into his death by using the Amontillado,

Another example of verbal irony is when Montresor toasts Fortunato 's long life but not in the implication that Fortunato means, “I drink”, he said, “to the buried that response around us.” “And I to your long life” (pg 868). This is really ironic because we know that Montresor is going to kill Fortunato. This further puts the reader into reading this story suspensefully because of the dark and ominous tone that Poe sets out by using both verbal and dramatic irony in his