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Irony In The Cask Of Amontillado

881 Words4 Pages

Edgar Allen Poe was an American writer in the 1800s, which was best known for his short stories, in particular his stories of mystery. “The Cask of Amontillado” is a story of revenge, in which the main character Montresor is fed up with repeatedly being humiliated and insulted by a character named Fortunato so he devises a well thought out plan to kill him. Poe masterfully used symbolism and irony in many of his stories. Poe symbolizes many things in “The Cask of Amontillado”, and uses three types of irony in the story, which is dramatic irony, situational irony, and verbal irony. One of the first symbols used in the story is the setting; “the supreme madness of carnival season” which to many is a joyful time, but to Montresor it is the …show more content…

Poe uses the Fortunato’s name as irony because he name means fortunate when in fact he is anything but fortunate. Also when Montresor says “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met.” When in reality it is him who is lucky because he will be benefiting by killing Fortunato. Further into the story Montresor seems to be worried about Fortunato’s health because he is profusely coughing so Montresor says “we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was.” Montresor here is merely using reverse psychology because he has no intention of going back nor does he care about Fortunato’s health. Fortunato is a fool once again and fails to realize that so he says “the cough's a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.” So they decide to proceed to find this cask of “amontillado”. As you can see its almost as if Montresor is envious of Fortunato when he says “as I once was” which is referring to his wealth, admiration, happiness and etc. Poe symbolizes many things and displays many different types of irony throughout “The Cask of Amontillado” and I only touched on a few of those. Poe displays these throughout the story to intensify details of the story and to also make it more understandable and interesting. This has different effects on the readers because one reader

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Examples Of Verbal Irony In The Cask Of Amontillado

160 Words | 1 Pages

In “The Cask of Amontillado” Edgar Allan Poe uses verbal irony to emphasize the evil intentions of Montresor. Poe uses several instances of irony to demonstrate that Forntunato’s death is imminent and Montresor knows all along. One example of irony being used is when Fortunato says “the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough. ”(119)

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Examples Of Verbal Irony In The Cask Of Amontillado

279 Words | 2 Pages

In the short story ,”Cask of Amontillado,” there are many examples of irony used by Poe throughout the story. In the story, the Narrator’s biggest challenge is to get revenge on Fortunato for “one thousand injuries,” but he has to plan how he’s going to do it successfully without getting caught. When the Narrator randomly runs into Fortunato, the author states that, “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met.” (Poe 59). This is an example of verbal irony because the Narrator didn’t mean it was lucky for Fortunato because he was just telling us how he vowed revenge on him.

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Situational Irony The Cask Of Amontillado Analysis

958 Words | 4 Pages

In the short story by Edgar Allen Poe, there are countless examples of irony to convey Montresor’s unlawful act, while applying an additional layer of irony to sabotage his revenge. An example of situational irony Poe uses in the story is simply the name Fortunato. Fortunato is an Italian name that means good fortune or luck. This is an example of situational irony because his name means the complete opposite of what he actually was.

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Irony In The Cask Of Amontillado

1121 Words | 5 Pages

His total obliviousness to the situation allows Montresor to take his revenge by easily manipulating Fortunato, starting when they meet at the carnival and lasting until Montresor chains Fortunato to the enclave’s wall (432). Poe introduces verbal irony through Montresor’s manipulative words, as the entire time Montresor is leading Fortunato down into the catacombs, he continuously badgers his drunken companion about the environment being bad for Fortunato’s health, even saying, “Your health is precious” (429). The voiced “concerns” qualify as verbal irony because the audience is already well aware that Montresor does not give a damn about Fortunato’s health and is only luring him into the catacombs to exact revenge. The third type of irony, situational, is not used by Poe until the end of the story when Montresor has almost completely sealed away Fortunato in the Montresor family tomb. When Fortunato stops yelling and making noise, Montresor immediately wants to know if he is still alive, so he drops “a torch through the remaining aperture….There came forth only in return a jingling of the bells” (432).

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97 Words | 1 Pages

In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Edgar Allan Poe displays the theme of revenge and manipulation. The narrator Montresor pledges revenge on Fortunato for an insult that is never explained. He maintains an appearance of goodwill towards Fortunato and decides to make use of Fortunato's weakness for fine wines against him. During the carnival season, the narrator approaches Fortunato, telling him that he has come across something that could pass for Amontillado a rare and expensive wine. Fortunato being excited about the news insists on accompanying Montresor to the vaults to determine whether it is Amontillado or not.

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Compare And Contrast Tell Tale Heart And The Cask Of Amontillado

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Although this is to lure his victim to his untimely fate, Fortunato goes to his death with much ignorance and thereby joy. Poe’s writing for Fortunato is far more grave than that of the old man. One doesn’t appreciate the death as much because of how deadly of a game he is playing into. From a readers perspective, Fortunato walking down to the cellar is like watching a lamb walk into a wolf den; wholly unsuspecting of their outright fate both are set to be slaughtered from their very arrival. The whole tone of “The Cask of Amontillado” is more gruesome in every way compared to “A Tell-tale Heart”.

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657 Words | 3 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado” is the narrative of a man named Montresor who seeks vengeance against a man named Fortunato. Fortunato insults Montresor. Next, Montresor meet Fortunato at a carnival, eventually luring him into the catacombs of his home to bury Fortunato alive. Moreover, different types of irony are portrayed in this short story. Dramatic irony consists of the character in the story knowing less about his or her situation than the reader.

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950 Words | 4 Pages

Poe’s Use of Unreliable Narrator in “The Cask of Amontillado” The unreliable narrator in the short story “ The Cask of Amontillado” draws the reader's attention. Edgar Allan Poe uses an unreliable narrator in “The Cask Amontillado” and his theme is revenge. Poe’s use of an unreliable narrator in his short story successfully creates a nervous effect for his readers. Poe uses an unreliable narrator by how he is very sneaky with his ways and how he wants to get back at someone for insulting him he is probably going to kill them.

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1054 Words | 5 Pages

The author's choice of words helps create the mood of shock because he describes Montresor’s actions after Fortunato gets a sense of what is being done to him. The author’s description keeps readers in shock because they can’t believe how cold Montresor was. Even though he never showed the side of him, he had it all along. The author’s use of words in the description makes the readers feel like they are in the story wondering what will happen next. Poe wanted the reader to understand what was going on in the “Cask of Amontillado”, so he wrote a detailed story choosing words that connected with his readers.

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Irony In 'The Cask Of Amontillado' By Edgar Allen Poe

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Brady Cetera Mrs Ker Honors English, Pd 1 22 May 2023 Cask Analysis In the short story “ The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allen Poe, it is a story all about the revenge on Fortunato by Montresor in a killing matter. Montresor wants to get revenge on his former acquaintance for what he did to him, and wants it to be just as bad. Irony is used heavily to impact the tone and mood throughout the whole story. Poe uses different types of irony to further show and contribute to the dark tone and mood.

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Edgar Allan Poe is most famous for the gothic themes he presents in his writings, this was no exception for Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”. Several important ideas are brought up about the story’s central theme of revenge. These ideas can be broken down into 3 parts: the incentive, the extent, and the reaction of the person partaking in revenge. It is essential to consider these ideas while reading Poe’s story, in order to comprehend his views on revenge. It also provides the reader the ability to question their own views on revenge as well as compare it with Poe’s.

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1208 Words | 5 Pages

Irony can be seen throughout the story in the words and phrases of the character. The irony can create a disturbing, yet slightly humorous scene with the audience not knowing what’s coming for the characters. In the short story, The Cask Of Amontillado, irony can be seen through the conversations of the two characters, Montresor and Fortunato. Although, Montresor is the character with most literary devices. Verbal irony can be seen in the story when Montresor told the “attendees” to stay in the house while he was gone.

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552 Words | 3 Pages

“The Use of Irony in "The Cask of Amontillado" Edgar Allan Poe is a phenomenal writer and makes many points in his writings. There are three different ways in Poe 's writing of "The Cask of Amontillado" that irony is used: verbal, situational and dramatic. Verbal irony can be seen when Montresor first sees Fortunato at the carnival. Situational irony is also used and can be seen between the meaning of Fortunato 's name and his destiny, as well as Montresor 's response to his own. The last way irony is used is dramatic irony, this can be seen by any reader, this occurs when Montresor tells Fortunato he is also a mason.

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484 Words | 2 Pages

This is one other time that Montresor uses reverses psychology to get what he wants. He knows that it will only make Fortunato want to keep on going. Montresor does not want a little cough to be responsible for Fortunato’s death as he wants to take full credit. Fortunato even says, “Enough… the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough,” only to have Montresor reply “True – true,” (Poe).

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1345 Words | 6 Pages

The fact that irony can be found all throughout “A Cast of Amontillado” is ironic within itself. However, the use of irony is not just important to the interesting and chilling nature of the story, but it contributes greatly to the overall theme. This idea is also expressed by literary critic James W. Gargono in his “‘The Cask of Amontillado’: A Masquerade of Motive and Identity.” He says that “the setting and pervasive irony of the tale do not merely enhance the grotesque effect Poe obviously intends; more importantly, they contribute their share to the theme of the story.”

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