The Suspense of the Catacombs
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is a mystery that offers great suspense and interest. This is because of the irony that Poe creates and the setting that makes a dangerous mood and foreshadows the victim’s death. In the beginning of the story, the narrator meets a man named Fortunato at an Italian carnival with the intentions for murdering him in the foreseeable future. The narrator talks with Fortunato saying, “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met,” (1). These first words spoken by the narrator show verbal irony because the narrator is not really saying that they met luckily. In fact, as I stated before, the narrator was planning this encounter, with the plan ending with Fortunato’s death. This proves to be suspenseful for the reader because they want to discover Fortunato’s actual fate while wishing they could tell Fortunato of the
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Because the reader knows of the narrator’s alternate motive, this passage also shows dramatic irony. Later in the story, Fortunato is being led deeper and deeper into the Montresor catacombs by the narrator, who claims that Amontillado, Fortunato’s most desired wine, is the prize they are seeking. While they are here, the narrator describes their surroundings, saying, “observe the white web-work which gleams from these cavern walls” (3). When he says this, he is speaking of the potassium nitrate that lines the catacomb’s walls, purposefully pointing it out to Fortunato. This setting description is relating the “nitre” covered walls to the web work of spiders. This image of spiders creates a mood that is creepy, eerie, and dangerous. This passage also foreshadows the future death of Fortunato. The narrator is pointing out the toxic walls to Fortunato, refering them to spiders, which can be deadly and poisonous. This foreshadows Fortunato’s death because when the potassium nitrate is set aflame by the narrator, it
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” is a short psychological thriller. The murder of Fortunato haunts Montresor so greatly that he feels the compulsion to tell the story some fifty years after the fact. He appears to be in the late stages of life desperately attempting to remove the stain of murder from his mind. That it is still so fresh and rich in specifics is proof that it has plagued him, “Perhaps the most chilling aspect of reading Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ for the first time is not the gruesome tale that Montresor relates, but the sudden, unpredictable, understated revelation that the murder, recounted in its every lurid detail, occurred not yesterday or last week, but a full fifty years prior to the telling” (DiSanza).
First, the journey that Fortunato and Montresor take is from the light and joy of a carnival through an underground tunnel that becomes darker, colder and more poisonous as they continue walking. Poe describes their descent into a "deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame," and talks about the nitre in the air around them as they go deeper underground and Fortunato comes closer to death. This slow, dangerous descent helps build suspense as the reader becomes increasingly aware of Fortunato's murderous plan.
"The Cask of Amontillado" is one of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest stories. In this story Poe introduces two central characters and unfolds a tale of horror and perversion. Montresor, the narrator, and Fortunato, one of Montresor's friends, are doomed to the fate of their actions and will pay the price for their pride and jealousy. One pays the price with his life and the other pays the price with living with regret for the rest of his life. Poe uses mystery, irony, and imagery to create a horrifying, deceptive, and perverse story.
The Cask of Amontillado is a short tale of revenge, written by Edgar Allan Poe. The two main characters in the story are Montresor, who is the murderer, and Fortunato who plays a wine connoisseur and the victim. In this dark story, we can see a lot of irony, hate and revenge coming from the main character who has been planning this all along. In this essay I will analyze, examples of irony and foreshadowing used by the writer, symbols and themes, among other things. (Hasanbelliu)
How could the author express death without clearly saying it? The short stories “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe both use foreshadowing in similar and different ways. Firstly, in “The Scarlet Ibis” the author writes, “It’s so calm, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had a storm this afternoon.” (Hurst 321). He is foreshadowing that the storm that will come, which represents bad things like Doodle dying. In addition, in “The Cask of Amontillado”, the author also foreshadows a bad event taking place, “And I to your long life.” (Poe 235). Allen Poe wrote referring to Montresor making a toast to Fortunato’s long life which is foreshadowing a bad event or the death of Fortunato. In contrast, in “The Scarlet Ibis” the author presents the foreshadowing by saying a storm is coming, and in “The Cask of the Amontillado” the author is using a toast declared by one of the characters.
The Cask of Amontillado is a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe in 1846. An analysis of how Poe reveals the theme “true freedom can only be obtained when one sheds one’s own confinements” through this story. The main character Montresor tells the tale of how he enacted his revenge upon Fortunato during carnival season in Italy. Poe successfully utilizes irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism to exemplify the referenced theme in The Cask of Amontillado.
In the dark and creepy short story, The Cask of Amontillado, the reader learns the value of choosing their words wisely around others in the revenge story about Montresor getting his vengeance on Fortunato who disgraced his family name. Montresor, who was once friends with Fortunato, develops and plan to destroy Fortunato but be able to get away without any harm in legal terms. In the short story, The Cask of Amontillado, the author, Edgar Allan Poe, uses setting, irony, and imagery to create an eerie mood for the reader.
In “Cask of Amontillado” the author drops a lot of irony throughout the story that creates suspense for the reader. The narrator has planned revenge on another character, Fortunato who is unaware of the idea which introduces dramatic irony. When the narrator coincidentally runs into Fortunato he smiley says, “My dear Fortunato you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking today!” (Poe 59). The audience knows that the narrator despises Fortunato and by him say he is luckily met lets the reader know that Fortunato isn't and is in some sort of danger and he is obivious of what we know. The narrator starts to talk about this wine called Amontillado which is the start of his plan knowing that Fortunato is a wine expert and can’t resist
Many different types of irony are used in The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe and they add many different elements to the story. Verbal irony is when the word means something different that what they actually mean.Situational irony is when the exact opposite happens then what is meant to happen. And finally dramatic irony is when the reader knows more than the character and in this case it is Fortunato.
The Cask of Amontillado, the narrator, Montresor, want to seek out revenge after Fortunato because Fortunato irreparably insulted him. Throughout the whole story, Montresor made it his mission to get back at Fortunato. The major theme is vengeance as it can drive a person to go as far as committing murder. The author uses many literary devices to elaborate this theme in the story, such as where the story is taken place, Irony, and Foreshadowing.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of greatest American authors and poets. He is well-known as a master of using irony in his story. “The Cask of Amontillado” is a horror story about revenge of Montresor upon Fortunato. Fortunato believes Montresor is his good friend, but he ends up with being chained and walled in to the catacombs. There are three types of irony used in this short story: verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony. Using these ironies, Poe wants the readers to understand about Montresor’s “friendship” with Fortunato.
Edgar Allen Poe uses irony and poetic justice all throughout “The Cask of the Amontillado”. The places where irony and poetic justice hold the most significance are the scenes where, Montresor speaks of the wronging done to him by Fortunato, where Montresor and fortunato speak of the coat of arms, and where at the very end when Montresor traps Fortunato in the catacombs and leaves him to die. These scenes clearly show the use of these two tools that Poe used to tell the story of Montresor and
spanish sherry. Montresor uses deception by assuring the amontillado is being held in the Montresor family catacombs. Montresor’s ability to find the weakness of his enemy and carry out a plan accordingly shows the wicked horror in which the way the narrator thinks. Therefore, making the reader horrified and uplifting the dark tone of the story. Another occurrence that helped uplift the mood was Montresor’s toast to Fortunato 's “long life.” “ Here I knocked off the neck of the bottle..”’drink”’ he said. “‘To the buried that repose around us”’ “‘ And I to your long life”’. The action of manipulation is shown by Montresor giving Fortunato more alcohol, making him even more drunk and more capable to go through with his plan. The alcohol dulls
In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor sets out on a vengeful mission that will end Fortunato’s life in an untimely fate. Montresor appeals to Fortunato’s love for wine to tempt the unsuspecting fellow to his impending doom. While Montresor tricks the foolish Fortunato frightfully, it is ultimately Fortunato’s pride that leads to his demise in the crypt. Poe uses several literary devices to foreshadow this murderous exploit of Montresor. Through the use of irony, symbolism, and imagery, the story entices readers to delve into the relationships and differences between Montresor and Fortunato.
Edgar Allan Poe is a famous writer in writing detective stories and horror stories. One of his horror stories, “The Cask of Amontillado” was talking about how a man took his revenge to his friend. However, to look deeply in this story, I found that this story was not just simply a horror tale about how a man gets his revenge in the safest way. Instead, it also demonstrates much irony in several areas: the title, the event, the season, the costume, the environment, the characters’ personalities, a man’s dignity and cockiness and at the end, the public order. he are