In “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor seeks to get revenge from Fortunato. The story has multiple examples of Situational, Dramatic, and Verbal Irony.
At the start of the story, the reader meets a character named Fortunato. Fortunato was normally a well-respected and feared man. It was well known to Montresor that his weakness was indulging in wine. Poe uses verbal irony throughout the story. One form of irony is in Fortunato’s name, which means fortunate. Fortunato isn’t very fortunate because he is killed by his so called friend. Another way Poe uses irony in his story is by the setting. The setting is at a carnival. Poe uses situational irony to kill Fortunato during a carnival. Usually a carnival is filled with fun and laughter, not death. Poe uses verbal irony by teasing Fortunato’s looks. He says Fortunato is
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“luckily met” and is looking “remarkably well” (Poe 374, lines 27-28).
The reader and Montresor know that it is only lucky that Montresor found Fortunato so he could kill Fortunato. Poe shows Montresor supposedly caring for Fortunato by saying “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 matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible” (375, lines 82-85). however, this is just another example of dramatic irony. Montresor doesn’t care about Fortunato’s health; he knows that Fortunato will not stop until he finds the pipe of amontillado. Montresor uses this to lure Fortunato deeper into the catacombs. When the two characters are in the catacombs, they stop to have a drink. Fortunato drinks “to the buried that repose around us” (Poe 375, lines 96-97). This in itself is an example of verbal irony. Fortunato doesn’t realize that he is about to join the dead around them. Fortunato was dressed as a
jester or fool. This is ironic because Montresor chains Fortunato to a wall and made him look a fool. Poe uses irony by saying “Pass your hand over the wall; you cannot help feeling the niter. Indeed, it is very damp. Once more, let me implore you to return. No? Then I must positively leave you. But I must first render you all the little attentions in my power” (378, lines 162-165). Because Montresor gives Fortunato so many opportunities to leave, in his mind, Fortunato killed himself and is the real fool. As you can see, during Montresor’s revenge, Edgar Allan Poe put many ironic words and phrases in the story.
In the story “The Cask of Amontillado”, the author uses lots of verbal irony to emphasize the evil intentions of Montresor.One of the examples of verbal irony in the story that he uses is “The cough’s a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.” and “true--true, I replied.” The effect of this irony is it that Montresor already knows how Fortunato will die.Another example of verbal irony used in the story was when they did a toast to each other. “I drink”, he said, to the buried that repose around us.”
One of the most horrifying lines in the story is given by Montresor after Fortunato says, “I will not die of a cough” (Baym ). Montresor says, “True— true....” (Baym ). It seems that Montresor 's murder plot became subconsciously manifest in those two words. Dramatic irony is irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the story (“dramatic-irony”) and Poe uses this effectively in this story. For example, Montresor expresses concern about Fortunato and says, "Come, I said, with decision, we will go back; your health is
In this chapter, Foster discusses irony. When Montresor is attempting to bring Fortunato into his catacombs, he makes several ironic statements. For example, he says that Fortunato’s “health is precious” (Poe 868). As well as this, Fortunato himself states that he “shall not die of a cough” (Poe 868). These two statements are ironic because Montresor is pretending to care about Fortunato’s health and life, when in reality, he is about to kill him. To add to this, Fortunato admits that he won’t die from a cough, unbeknown to the fact that he will instead die from his friend. Also, another ironic part of the story is the fact that Fortunato came to the catacombs for wine, but his own intoxication led to how easily he was killed. If it hadn’t been Carnival, and if he hadn’t been so heavily drunk, he might have been able to at least attempt to escape his inevitable death. Also, if he had been sober, he may have realized how foolish it was to follow Montresor to the catacombs when his story wasn’t exactly adding up. These are a few examples of irony in “The Cask of Amontillado.”
Wood, Kerry.” Literary Analysis : Irony In ‘ The Cask Of Amontillado’ by Edgar Allan Poe.”Humanities 360. Helium, Inc., 9 Nov 2007. Web.17 Mar 2014.
Poe is credited for defining the modern short story. In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, he tells a tale of revenge. The story begins with Montresor, our narrator, stating that Fortunato, his enemy, has insulted him and how he seeks revenge. It continues by describing how Montresor leads Fortunato to his death by using reverse psychology and alcohol. “The Cask of Amontillado” conveys an eerie mood to its audience through dialogue and descriptive details.
Irony is also used throughout this tale. The use of revenge in this story shows irony. Montressor avenges himself by fooling Fortunato into literally walking into his own grave. Fortunato pursues the "cask" which ends up being his own casket. Montressor even asks Fortunato repeatedly whether he would like to turn back.
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
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)
The things Montresor persuaded Fortunato to do led to the irony aspect of the story. Montresor persuaded Fortunato to go in the vault when Fortunato insisted that it would be too cold by saying that the cold was merely nothing (346). Montresor’s technique to pursue Fortunato to go into the dungeon is one reason why irony plays a role to the eerie feeling of the story because when they finally go down into the dungeon, it was cold to a point where he used wine as part of his plot to bring warmth. Secondly, Montresor has Fortunato so wound up in the thought of seeing his dungeon and drinking the wine. Fortunato wonders if his wife and friends will be waiting for him, but decides to dismiss that thought to stay down in the dungeon with Montresor (351). When Fortunato completely disregards his wife and friends for a dungeon and, what seemed to be at the time, his good friend, that signals that all he cares about is this vault and wine that Montresor has introduced him to, leaving that suspicious mood that the audience feels. To conclude, the irony that the author hands to the audience displays the eerie and suspicious feeling to the story and contributes to the mood.
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is a story full of irony. Irony is defined as a literary technique in which what appears differs radically from what is actually the case. In addition, irony can be divided into three groups: dramatic, verbal, and situational. Dramatic irony is when the readers notice something before the characters do. Verbal irony is when the characters say something that differs significantly from what they really mean. Situational irony is when the actual result is different from what was initially expected of it. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Poe combines all of these ironies in a truly singular way to tell the story and to construct the personalities of the characters
Irony is an important literary device in the story of “The cask of amontillado”. An early use of irony is in the description of Fortunato’s costume, when he meets Monstresor. Monstresor says, “He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress; and his head was surmounted
Poe uses irony in his story to engage the reader throughout his text, build suspense and create tension. Poe’s story uses information that readers already know and consequently uses irony in order to sustain the readers interest. He uses dramatic irony, since Fortunato is unaware that Montresor attempts to kill him, but the readers know that he will. Montresor reveals early that he is seeking revenge on Fortunato, therefore, when Montresor expresses concern about Fortunato’s health in line 36, "Come," I said, with decision, "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 matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible. (36), the reader already knows his plan. He is just trying to trick him into believing him that he cares about him to gain his trust. He also uses verbal irony, "Enough," he said; "the cough's a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.” (Poe37), but Fortunato already knows how he will die later on. This example illustrates how vague Fortunato is and has no clue of Montresor’s evil intentions. The situational irony Poe uses in the story is when Montresor kills Fortunato and walks out of the catacombs. Montresor says, “my heart grew sick; it was the
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.
Despite the fact that Fortunato's name sounds like fortunate, ironically he is murder by someone that he believed was his friend. Now that not so fortunate. Montresor begins by directly telling the reader how mad he is at Fortunato, and that he has had enough. This quote foreshadows the death of Fortunato because from the beginning the reader knows that
The first sentence of "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe gives a singular and simple theme which is Montresor's revenge. The plot of the story revolves strongly around the execution of his betrayal and his revenge against Fortunato. The author does an impressive job by expressing the satire that takes place throughout the narrative by conveying the irony through the words and actions of the characters.