Irony In The Cask Of Amontillado

In the story, “The Cask of Amontillado”, Edgar Allen uses many writing styles but the most commonly used style in this story is the use of irony. Since this short story is a complicating story to understand reading the first time, I believe the writer made a good choice to use irony to express characters individual's feelings and thoughts, mainly Montresor. In the beginning of the story, Montresor, the narrator of the story, explains his intentions to murder Fortunato, a guilty person who hurt him. This automatically creates a dramatic irony, for the reason that the reader now knows more than the character. An example of this is shown in the fifth paragraph. “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met,” (Paragraph 5). This statement is a type

of verbal irony because Fortunato is not actually luckily met by Montresor, whose intentions are to murder Fortunato. Another example of when Allen uses irony is when there is only one stone left to fit into the wall as Montresor is stacking stones to trap Fortunato, and Fortunato says, “Let us be gone.” This example is also verbal irony because Fortunato thinks Montresor will get him out and release Fortunato. Fortunato would have to be clueless on what is going on for him to say this statement because he is clearly being trapped by Montresor. After this, Montresor says “Let us be gone”, as well. Allen demonstrates Montresor to be a sarcastic and dishonest person, letting the readers know what the personality of a character is. When Montre This irony makes the story more abstruse and interesting and propels the story forward. The reader has more knowledge about what is going to happen or is happening than the characters. Throughout the story, dramatic irony is the most