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Use Of Irony In The Cask Of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe

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In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor lures his friend-turned-enemy Fortunato into the depths of the catacomb underneath Montresor’s home. For a reason unknown to the reader, Montresor seeks revenge against Fortunato. With an enticing, irresistible plan Montresor uses Fortunato’s pride to deceive and eventually kill Fortunato. Without Poe’s use of irony, the suspense throughout the plot would be inadequate in setting the story's disturbing tone. Irony through characterization and location affects the readers with the greatest amount of suspense in this short story. An intelligent young man by the name of Montresor, which sounds awfully similar to “monster,” is the main character. Montresor’s cunning ability to manipulate Fortunato helps influence …show more content…

Montresor greets Fortunato and says “my dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day” (Poe 227). The deceitful conversation tricks Fortunato and creates a false sense of trust in Montresor. Although Montresor refers to Fortunato as his dearest friend, Fortunato does not realize that Montresor is responsible for his unfortunate death. Poe characterizes Fortunato as a clown with his costume of motley. “[Fortunato] had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (Poe 227). Poe alludes to the fact that Fortunato is a fool to trust such vengeful manipulation from Montresor. In addition, Montresor fools Fortunato to believe that he was being truthful when he said: “we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no

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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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223 Words | 1 Pages

In Edgar Allen Poe’s, “Cask of Amontillado”, Poe skillfully uses verbal irony in order to demonstrate the villainous intentions of Montresor. The first example of verbal irony is when Fortunato, the victim, toasts “to the buried that repose” and Montresor, the murderer, “And I to your long life”(page 119). By now the reader is beginning to understand. Montresor's murderous intentions by Poe’s verbally ironic statements about life and death. Another, example of verbal irony is the play of the word “masons”.

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1176 Words | 5 Pages

At the beginning of the story, Fortunato is dressed as a jester. He wears a long striped dress and a cap often associated with jesters. Montresor assumes Fortunato’s appearance makes him gullible. This allows him to believe that he is much more intelligent than Fortunato and that Fortunato is an easy target. The fact that Fortunato is dressed as a fool enhances Montresor’s satisfaction with his ability to deceive him.

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491 Words | 2 Pages

Montresor has wrath toward Fortunato for insulting and treating him less. Fortunato was tricked into thinking a different result would happen than his death. Montressor tried to make his own justice of the situation ‘’ At length, i will be avenged. ‘’ pg 83 Poe showing he's going to get back at Fortunato for what he did. “He did not perceive that my smile was at his demise’’

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1239 Words | 5 Pages

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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358 Words | 2 Pages

The Cask of Amontillado, a historical fiction short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, accommodates many instances of irony. A critical moment containing dramatic irony occurs when Fortunato and Montresor are traveling in the catacombs searching for the cask. As the men make their way towards the Amontillado, Fortunato asks about the Montresor family and has to be reminded of the Montresor family arms. Montresor kindly responds and describes the arms as “a huge human foot d’or” (Poe 3).

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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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Early in the story one can understand the hate towards Fortunato, but it gets confusing when Montresor says, “I was so pleased to see him, that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand” (Poe 1846). Montresor had such a hate for Fortunato due to all the pain and upsets caused by him, so much so that Montresor vowed revenge and devised a plan to achieve just that. He did what every person would have done, put on a fake smile, and go on as if nothing has changed and nothing will change. This makes the previous statement from Montresor clear; he is trying to deceive his friend from getting an idea of

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917 Words | 4 Pages

The Irony of ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ ‘The Cask of Amontillado’(Poe, 173) is a revenge story that involves two men named Fortunato and Montresor. Our main antagonist is Montresor, who fools and triumphs over the drunken prideful fool Fortunato. Edgar Allen Poe uses irony in a setting and action to foreshadow the demise of Fortunato. He uses a lot of foreshadowing along with verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony to show Fortunato’s misfortunes which eventually lead to his death.

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245 Words | 1 Pages

In the horror fiction,“The Cask Of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe the author uses dramatic irony to develop the theme of revenge and how that only made it easier for Montresor to punish Fortunato. In the story Poe uses dramatic irony in this line, “I continued to smile… but he did not perceive the thought of his own immolation”(Poe, 1) to emphasize that Fortunato had no clue what Montresor was thinking. Montresor lures Fortunato to his own death by making him drunk but as they go deeper into the cave, the mold makes Fortunato sick so he starts coughing. This resembles that Montresor had planned the death of Fortunato long before because he knew how to lure him into his trap and make him follow his lead.

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810 Words | 4 Pages

This causes Montresor to get his revenge by luring Fortunato from the carnival into his catacombs. Montresor, abusing the fact that Fortunato was in a drunken state, leads him into a niche in his catacombs and seals him in there. The traits that allow him to pull off the murder are his intelligence, how cunning he is, and finally how methodical he is. Montresor proves his intelligence many times throughout the poem.

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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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661 Words | 3 Pages

When Montresor first encounters Fortunato, Fortunato is wearing a jester's costume and appears to be drunk. Montresor notes that "the man wore motley" and "was too astounded to resist" when Fortunato proposes that they leave to the catacombs (Poe 14). Later, when Montresor starts to bury Fortunato alive, he teases him by stating, "Your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was," (Poe 18). In both of these instances Fortunato's pride is exacerbated, as he is too foolish to comprehend the danger he is in and too proud to back down even when opposing a definite threat.

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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

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” irony is applied throughout to help foreshadow future and give more of an insight to the readers, all while adding some humor. Irony is divided into three main types: dramatic, situational, and verbal. Poe uses dramatic irony when he has Fortunato dress as a jester, “a tight-fitting parti-striped dress and his was surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (Poe). The get-up makes Fortunato looks foolish and foreshadows his actions of following Montresor into the catacombs to taste some wine. Montresor even compliments the outfit and says “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met” (Poe), but it was not Fortunato who was in luck, but Montresor who would gain profit of their meeting.

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