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Use Of Irony In The Cask Of Amontillado

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Although Mahatma Gondie believes that an eye for an eye ends up making the whole world blind Montresor, in Edger Allen Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado,” clearly disagrees. In contrast Montresor lures his supposed friend Fortunato to a gruesome death deep in the catacombs. Poe creates a horrific effect through the use of three literacy techniques. To begin Poe employs irony in order to develop a frightening atmosphere. For example at the carnival Montresor acknowledges that “there are no attendance at home; they had absconded to make merry in honor of the time. I had told that I should not return until morning and, had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house,”. Montresor knows his servants very well and by giving them certain demands and knowing that’s they would do the exact opposite. This was a thought out plan on Montresor’s part. In addition deep in the catacombs when Montresor offers …show more content…

As Fortunato sees the wine “it sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled,”. By the way he is gleaming into the wine the sparkles just makes it taste and look like perfection. The description is very well executed that maybe even the smell of the wine is brought about. Walking along “had passed through long walls of piled skeletons with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost of the catacombs,”. All the different elements to the catacombs gives off a creepy and place to be roaming around. Having all of the Montresor family down there with their spirts still wondering makes a lonely area. Looking across the catacombs Fortunato spots “the niter hangs like moss,”. The catacombs are appeared to be uncomfortable and spooky. It is almost like feeling, seeing, and smelling the niter which is frightful. By enhancing the functions of touch, taste, sight, and smell through the use of descriptive writing, Poe obtains a dreadful effect to his short

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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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168 Words | 1 Pages

Poe’s stories “Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” display the dark romantic theme of a man’s soul by the development of the setting, plot, and characterization. As both stories begin, the initial device used to advance the theme is setting, which remains grim and sinister throughout the duration of both stories. Accompanying these physical details is the plot, each of which includes the murder of an innocent man. Most notably, the characterization of each piece’s narrator allows the audience to fully understand their internal struggle and its final resolution. While “Cask of Amontillado” contains an overall intriguing and unexpected plot as well as setting, the narrator’s characterization proves this story to conclude in a less

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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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770 Words | 4 Pages

He did this, because he wanted it to go with an ironic, spooky and a sophisticated tone, in order to create a menacing and a disturbing mood. The story is set in Montresor’s family crypt. This is so, because crypts have plenty of bones and are dark and unpromising. The fact that the story takes place during a carnival is important, since it leads to the irony. It occurs at this time, so that you don’t it, since a place of happiness and joy isn 't a stereotypical place for a murder to occur.

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1211 Words | 5 Pages

In “The Cask of Amontillado” Poe uses imagery to describe the catacombs as a dusty, dark eerie place. Poe describes the catacombs as to add suspense to make it an eerie mood. Poe used his imagery in a way to express how the remains were piled so

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819 Words | 4 Pages

Montresor then left his authority, Fortunato, to suffer and die in a cellar full of nitre. Similarities can be drawn between the children in The Veldt. Every morning the Hadleys woke up to the sound of screams that sound familiar, and when they are locked in the nursery, surrounded by lions, they “realize why those other screams had sounded so familiar” (Bradbury 10). This shows that the children have been plotting the death of their parents for a long time. Killing may not always have spiteful intentions.

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601 Words | 3 Pages

While Montresor is building a wall to seal up Fortunato in the room he hears a weird sound. “But now there came from out the niche a low laugh that erected the hairs upon my head”(Poe 179) . The way the author used the word erected in the sentence makes the reader feel the creepiness of the out of place laugh that the protagonist might have felt. Another part of the story the author uses diction is when Montresor is taking Fortunato down the catacombs he precisely explains the scene. “The drops of moisture trickle among the bones”(179).

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Next, Montresor replies, “It is this, I answered, producing from beneath the folds of my roquelaire trowel.” (239). Although Fortunato does not understand that Montresor has lured him into the catacombs of his home with the intentions of murdering him, but the reader knows

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Poe wrote in the “Masque of the Red Death,” “The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men,” (Poe 1). It goes to show to what length people will go to survive. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor's cellar represented the embodiment of death

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950 Words | 4 Pages

Having drawn us into Montresor's paranoia with his very first sentence, Poe will not let us escape. Like poor Fortunato, we too are walled up in a suffocating structure from which only death -- or the end of the story -- can release us. Until that moment we are imprisoned in a logic that is entirely sound, but for the fact that it's erected on a false premise(Mcgrath). Poe is a person who you probably do not want to mess with because it seems as if he has the ability to ruin you. You the reader will make a very good decision by not making poe mad and not being rude or criticising him

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1054 Words | 5 Pages

The fictional short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe takes place in the catacombs of Montresor’s palace, during the carnival’s climax. The story begins when Montresor, the villain of the story, vows revenge on Fortunato. Throughout the story, the author doesn't tell us what the revenge will be, but his choice of words in the details creates a mood in the reader. The author’s detailed description in the short story creates different moods in the reader like anger, satisfaction, curiosity, and victory because the chosen words connect with the audience.

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1106 Words | 5 Pages

A Questionable Flaw In a fight between good versus evil, good is the recurring victor. However, when the good and evil are fighting within oneself, the outcome is not as desired as we wish it would be. Abraham Lincoln once said, “I would rather be a little nobody than an evil somebody.” Although good should definitely triumph evil, most people struggle between the two and it is a recurrent flaw.

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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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624 Words | 3 Pages

My own fancy grew warm with the Medoc. We had passed through long walls of piled skeletons, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs” (pg, 2). This evidence shows the great word choice chosen

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