Examples Of Dramatic Irony In The Cask Of Amontillado

In “The Cask of Amontillado,” there are multiple Instances of irony. For instance, you could just look at the name of one of the main characters, Fortunato. In the story, Fortunato gets killed by Georg in a harsh fashion. This is ironic because his name is Fortunato but he is not very fortunate in the story.

In the story, Georg tries to trick Fortunato into coming down to his catacombs, an underground chain of tunnels. Georg would say “my friend” (Poe 374, 47) to try and keep Fortunato on his good side. This is verbal irony because George doesn’t consider Fortunato to be his friend. Georg actually strongly dislikes him to the point of killing him even though he is verbally calling him his friend. It could also be dramatic irony because the

reader knows that Fortunato is not actually Georg’s friend but Fortunato thinks that they share a friendship. Also, another example of dramatic irony is Fortunato not knowing what Georg is planning on doing to Fortunato. In the story, Georg is playing out his revenge on Fortunato. He tells him that he has excellent wine in his cellar that he wants to share with him but when they get down there, he chains him to a wall and burns him alive. During the whole story, Fortunato doesn't suspect anything. He is very clueless because he is just focused on getting his wine. He has absolutely no idea of what Georg has up his sleeve.
In conclusion, there were multiple instances of Irony in “The Cask of Amontillado.” There were examples of situational irony and dramatic irony ranging from character names to plot details.