Edgar Allan Poe Humor Analysis

Edgar Allan Poe is a comedian. To some people, his humor may not be as appealing compared to that of a stand-up comedian, but he is wise in his ideas nonetheless. His dark sense of humor goes hand-in-hand with the sick, twisted thoughts that produce his ingenuity. His humor is sly in style yet complex in content, and he makes this extremely evident in his works. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Poe cleverly flashes his comedic bravado in front of his audience’s face through interactions between the characters and their surroundings. He leaves subtle hints which are meant to cue the readers into discovering the humor in his perverted puns. Although puns may not be his literary forte, Poe is able to utilize his uncanny sense of dark humor and add

As the tale of events unfold, the audience becomes increasingly aware of this pun on words, for Fortunato’s fate is unluckily sealed. He is manipulated by Montresor and led to his untimely and horrific death. So the irony lies in the fact that a man whose name would indicate good fortune ends up with the very ill fortune of being buried (or technically walled up) alive, something not very fortunate at all. Adding to the sickly humor revolving around Fortunato, his jester costume is a direct reflection of his fate. It is appropriate that Fortunato wear the costume of a fool, for he is duped into coming to the catacombs, and is completely tricked into allowing himself to be chained to a wall. The pun is revealed in the way that Fortunato fancies his jester costume. It suggests that at least some of the "thousand injuries" Montresor has suffered were in the form of cruel

Fortunato is referring to the secret society, the Masons, not to a person who actually works with brick and stone for a living. Fortunato is a Mason and he wants to find out (by using the secret sign) if Montresor is too. Montresor is not a Mason in the sense of the brotherhood, but he will become a literal mason later on in the story. His reference to the word "mason" indicates a person who builds using brick and mortar which foreshadows Montresor's act of entrapping Fortunato within a wall made of brick and mortar. This is simply just an excuse for Montresor to enjoy himself by taunting Fortunato. He is literally telling Fortunato "here's how I'm going to kill you." Another example of a pun on words is when there is only one stone left to fit into the wall, and Fortunato says, “Let us be gone.” This is the sort of sick humor that Poe utilizes so effectively because he would have to be a complete fool to think Montresor is going to undo all those layers of bricks and let him out. He is hoping against hope. Montresor’s reply is even more ironic, “Yes, let us be gone.” Montresor repeats Fortunato's words, not saying that they shall leave together, but that Fortunato will be gone from this life. He is torturing Fortunato with his irony, and has been all