The Cask Of Amontillado Irony Essay

764 Words4 Pages

The Cask of Amontillado is a story about a brutal murder in which the main character, Fortunato, is killed. The other main character is Montresor, who indirectly, directly kills Fortunato. He dies because of the dampness in the catacombs in which Montresor traps him in a room inside the catacombs. The dampness sickens Fortunato and with the combo between Montresor trapping him in the room he dies. There are many ideas and items that could be discussed in this short story, but the use of irony stands out the most to me. Edgar Allen Poe is a mastermind when it comes to writing and manipulating the reader’s thoughts about a piece. In this short story he adds in several counts of irony in which add an extra experience for the reader. In every story the author writes things the way they do for a reason. Nine times out of ten everything an author writes has a purpose. There are two types of irony, passable and actual. Passable irony is irony that may not first be seen and might be found after a deep uncovering of the story. Actual irony is irony that is easily identifiable. At the beginning of the story the reader is most like Fortunato. The reader hears but does not understand. What this means is that the reader is merely along for the ride of the story and does not know any underlying plot twists and climaxes. Much like …show more content…

As stated in the beginning of the story, Montresor talks about how he seeks revenge on Fortunato. Fortunato is the complete opposite of a friend to Montresor. Another example of irony is when Fortunato develops a cough while in the catacombs of Amontillado. The irony develops when Montresor comments that the cough will not kill him but inevitably he will die from the dampness of the catacombs because Montresor traps him in the