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The Cask Of Amontillado Irony Essay

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In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” the author utilizes the literacy elements of dialogue, setting and characterization to illustrate the irony of Fortunato’s demise. One way Poe’s short story uses literacy elements to illustrate the irony of Fortunato’s demise is by using the irony of dialogue. In the upcoming quote, Montresor just opened up a bottle of wine in the catacombs and Fortunato and him are making a toast. “I drink… to the buried that repose around us.” (Poe 211). Fortunato says this not knowing that he will soon be buried with everyone around. Another way dialogue is used to illustrate the irony of Fortunato’s demise is when they enter the catacombs and Fortunato begins to cough uncontrollably. “Enough… the cough is a mere nothing, it will not …show more content…

One quote takes place in the beginning of the short story when Montresor explains that Fortunato has been drinking and he looks like a drunk joke. “The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-stripped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (Poe 211). What he’s wearing is being described as the outfit of a jester, who told jokes. The irony is that he is the joke because of his fate. He was a joke by following Montresor to the catacombs. In the next quote, they are in the catacombs close to the execution. “Putting on a mask of black silk, and drawing a rolquelaire closely about my person, I suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo” (Poe 212). A killer does not have a uniform, but an executer typically wears a black silk mask. Knowing this the reader can sense what will happen to Fortunato. Fortunato is drunk in The beginning of the story, which affects what he does to lead him to his death. “His eyes flashed with a fierce light” (Poe 2013). Knowing how drunk he is affects his judgments for when Montresor takes him to his death, showing how he made those

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Poe carries verbal irony throughout the rest of the story, as well; Montresor refers to Fortunato as “my friend” in many instances, however, the reader knows

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As readers, we have no idea what Fortunato did to Montresor or his family name to drive him to such revenge. Poe hints at certain things, from revenge and the family crest to his arrogance of insisting that Fortunato penetrate the Montresor vault to acquire the esteemed Cask Amontillado. "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge" (1126). The only clue is that Montresor systematically closes up Fortunato in a bone chamber perhaps with others who have wronged his family in the past. However, due to the reader's not knowing his true injustice, his murder seems unjustified and maybe even cruel to some

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Montresor tortures Fortunato, both physiologically and physically. Montresor clearly gives Fortunato “multiple chances to escape his fate” (Delany 34), as he gives Fortunato obvious clues to his true intensions. These include leading Fortunato into a place for the dead, telling Fortunato not to go due to his severe cough that made it “impossible to reply” (Poe 5) at times, reminding Fortunato of his family arms, mentioning Luchesi, and showing Fortunato a trowel. Montresor seems to receive morbid joy out of the fact that Fortunato is so intoxicated that, just like the foot on Montresor’s coat of arms, he is unintentionally “stepping into his own destruction” (Cervo

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When the two encounter at “about dusk” (166), Montresor welcomes his friend exclaiming warmly, “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met” (166). However, Fortunato is oblivious to how Montresor intends to murder within the coming hours. Thus, Montresor’s greeting of his friends is a form of verbal irony. Fortunato is not at all “luckily met” (166) as Montresor claims since Fortunato would have been better off not seeing his friend at all. By having Montresor great his friend using verbal irony, the author is able to emphasize the theme of betrayal among friends.

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According to the text, after Montresor reaches for a bottle of wine to give to Fortunato, Fortunato states “I drink to the buried that repose around us”(61). Then, Montresor says “ and I, to your long life”(61). This reveals Montresor is sarcastic, for he drinks Fortunato’s long life despite he is about to bury him alive. Montresor is very strategic in his words and actions, for he pursues and lures Fortunato into the catacombs and gets him more intoxicated to fulfill his mission. This also foreshadows Fortunato’s death, which is soon to come.

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Poe uses many examples of irony within A Cask of Amontillado. The three examples of irony that will be discussed in this essay are, Montresor’s first words towards Fortunato, the conversation regarding the masons, and Montresor’s reaction to the crime. The first example of irony is Montresor’s first words towards Fortunato. Fortunato thinks Montresor is happy to see him because of his experience. Poe says, “My dear Fortunato you are luckily met” (237).

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One can gather from the line and the short story as a whole that Fortunato was an aristocrat, and extremely wealthy. His probable birth into nobility, and an assumed life of security and comfort provides background information as to why he is so unsuspecting of Montresor’s motives. His love of wine and the fact that he ‘had been drinking much’ also adds context as to why Fortunato would willingly let a man whom he’d insulted lead him to his

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Though Fortunato is an intelligent wine expert, his expertise leads him to his death. In Italian the word Fortunato means fortunate, something that he is not by the end of the story. In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allan Poe writes in the first-person point of view from the perspective of Montresor, the diabolic narrator of this tale, who vowed revenge against Fortunato. Montresor began to develop the perfect plan for retribution.

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This one-sided story by the narrator, Montresor, leads to a suspenseful conclusion not only that Fortunato’s insults perhaps are minor, but also that Fortunato may not recognize the issues at all. This lack of evidence and unrealistic friendship lead readers to believe that Fortunato does not deserve to be buried alive. Montresor could be just a sadistic character who wants to murder his enemy for

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Being an unreliable narrator makes the reader wonder how much he had to include deceit in his story simply to justify his actions to himself. It is very possible that Fortunato was not, in fact, deserving of his death in this manner, and Montresor took a few of his innocent gestures or deeds the wrong way. His personality is full of deceit in the way that he manipulates people into giving him what he wants, too. In hindsight of the murder, Montresor recalls that “he had a weak point--this Fortunato--although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared. He prided himself on his connoisseurship of wine” (Poe 87).

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The fact that Fortunato is a fool, gullible, and always drunk, makes him an easy target for Montresor to kill him. First, do to the fact that Fortunato is always drunk, he does not realize that he is a fool, which makes it easy for Montresor to kill him. The fact that Fortunato is drunk, reveals to the reader that he has a drinking problem. He went to a carnival with Montresor and they were drinking at the carnival. " ' He had been drinking much.' "

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Fortunato is the protagonist of this short story, he is the most important character in the novel. Fortunato liked the good wine, and occasionally he overdoing with alcohol. We see that Edgar Allan Poe identifies a lot with this character since Poe was an alcoholic (Kennedy 5).He is the antagonist of this story, he feels a great grudge towards Fortunato since apparently Fortunato on several occasions humiliated Montresor. Fortunato is a friend of Montresor, through him we have some information about the character or Fortunato, Montresor says that he is an expert of wine, he is very arrogant about his ability to distinguish a good wine. In the end, his great love was the cause of his death.

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He states that Fortunato is a respected man, and that he will be greatly missed, and that he is happy as he once had been. He insists on turning around, and Fortunato refuses. Fortunato says that a cold shall not kill him, and he insists on moving forward. Montresor, I believe, enjoys the irony and agrees that a cold shall not kill him, because he knows that he will be the cause of Fortunato’s death. Fortunato’s lack of knowledge allows his to easily fall for Montresor’s 3rd step in his

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