Justice, vengeance and forgiveness are common issues amongst the characters both in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and Pushkin’s short story “The Shot”. Both authors display intense irony and symbolism throughout their stories. Poe use these literary elements to create an interesting plot in which the reader can predict the future of the victim throughout the story. Pushkin uses irony to add a twist in the events that occur in his short story. While the stories are very different in context, the literary elements used to develop the plot and the characters are much the same. Alexander Pushkin’s “The Shot” takes place in Russia. It revolves specially around the army and various characters in the army. The story has three different …show more content…
He is so arrogant this time around that he wants to draw again for the first shot. Pushkin displays irony here because Silvio looses yet again. However, the count misses a second time. It is almost as if the past is simply repeating itself. When Silvio goes to take his shot, the counts wife walks in. She tries to stop the duel, but the count insists that Silvio shoot him. In this moment Silvio decides he has broken the count and that is revenge enough for him. He misses the shot on purpose and moves on with his life yet again. The story ends with Silvio dying in a military battle years later which in a way is ironic because throughout the story Silvio should’ve died either in the duel with the count or in the duel with the young officer. However, it is a shot fired in war that eventually leads to his demise. Edgar Allan Poe’s title “The Cask of Amontillado” contains irony in it of itself. Amontillado is a wine named after the city in which it was originally made, and a cask is a wine barrel. In the story, Montresor brings Fortunato to a wine cellar to kill him. He convinces him to come look for the rare Amontillado wine and then leads him to his death inside the catacombs. However, the title can also mean casket or coffin. Ironically, the title is hinting that the cask is Fortunato’s casket because he will die in the catacombs while searching for the