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. The first irony is verbal irony. Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant. There are many examples of this kind of irony through this story. The first irony is the name “Fortunato.” Fortunato’s name suggests good fortune, or of being fortunate, but he is exactly the opposite, he is killed. Another irony is when Fortunato follows Montresor go to the vault, Montresor acts like he cares about Fortunato’s health, “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.” (1202) But readers know from the beginning of the story, Montresor only wants to kill Fortunato. “And I to your long life,” (1202) Fortunato has lived out his life already, it is about to be over. Going deeper into the vaults, Fortunato gets more and more coughing, and Montresor shows his concern to Fortunato’s health “Come, we will go back ere it is too late. Your cough—“It is nothing.”(1202) But Montresor knows that the more he acts as he cares Fortunato, the more Fortunato wants to reach Amontillado-his dark fate. Fortunato is a man who is being blindly led to his death by someone who he feels as an admiring friend, but this friend is actually a person in searching for his own revenge. The second type of irony used in this short story is dramatic irony which irony is when the characters do not know and the people reading the story or watching the play does know. Fortunato appears with an ill-looking “He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted but the conical cap and bells.”(1200) He dresses like a jester, and there are a big joke on him soon.
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.”
Another example of verbal irony lies in Montresor's conversation with Fortunato. Montresor tells him, "My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met." "(Baym) Fortunato seems to interpret these words to mean that Montresor likes him and is glad to have run into him. On the other hand, Montresor, is happy to see Fortunato but for his own despicable reason: that of murder.
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.”
In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” the main character, Montresor, leads his enemy, Fortunato, into his catacombs, and there buries him alive by bricking him up in a niche in the wall; Poe gives no actual reason for this except to say that Montresor has been “insulted” in some way. In his Science Fiction work “Usher II,” Ray Bradbury adopts many of Poe’s works in creating his story—including pieces from “TCoA.” What separates Bradbury’s work from other authors who borrow works and re-imagine them (Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, Geraldine Brooks’s March, and Peter Carrey’s Jack Maggs, for instance), is that “Usher II,” in its imaginative way, is trying to be one with its predecessor. Bradbury seeks to retain Poe’s love of the double and the secretive (Gothic mentalities where the reader is meant to be a bit uncertain about what they’re reading and what’s going on) while adding, most notably regarding “TCoA,” the things Poe never had much care for: a beginning, an end, and reason—thus making “Usher II” not only an homage to Poe’s work, but a companion piece whose beating heart lies within the original work.
Symbolism is something that represents more than what it really is. It is often by authors in their writing to give it more emphasis. For example:" In life there will always be peaks and valleys" meaning in life there will be ups and downs but we should enjoy the peaks and fight through the valleys. Objects can also be a form of symbolism such as The Bible, it represents more than just a book. It represents Life, Church, Religion, and the life of Jesus Christ and what he stood for. Irony is like a twist or words or the opposite of what is intended. For example: Laughing at someone that just slipped and fell, then later you find yourself slipping and falling is a form of irony. Irony is found in real life situations as well as writings. Symbolism is a technique that gives authors a better story and shows objects as more than what they are. They use techniques like this to catch the reader’s attention.
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
Dramatic irony is used when we know, or draw a conclusion of, what will happen to Fortunato, although he continues his descent into the catacombs in pursuit of the Amontillado. The sense of revenge reaches its highest peak when Poe uses irony for Montresor to inform us that he will smile in Fortunato's face while using his wine to lure him into the catacombs to taste his imaginary Amontillado. During this scene like a fool in his costume while Montresor is leading him to his death bed. This whole time Montresor plays very innocent.
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.
In this short story, examples of irony and foreshadowing are presented very often in between lines. One of the very first things that I find as the biggest irony in this short story fiction is the victim’s name “Fortunato”. As I looked up the definition of the name, Fortunato means fortunate which is very ironic due to the fact that he is going to die, and be walled up in the catacombs. Aside from that, I also found a verbal irony at the very beginning of the story when Montresor first sees Fortunato at the carnival and says “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met,” (Poe) .I found this to be very much ironic because, Fortunato is not actually lucky to have met Montresor who is actually going to murder him.
An important element in any story is setting. Authors use setting to convey certain feelings brought on by the character’s surroundings. It also subliminally serves to illustrate the character’s intentions. In “The Cask of Amontillado” Edgar Allen Poe uses the dark, imposing setting to do just that, communicate the underlying theme of the story, being death, revenge and deception.
The Cask of Amontillado, one of Edgar Allen Poe’s most celebrated works, paints a very sinister and dark tale of revenge. It is riddled with symbolism of what is in store for Fortunato who has betrayed Montresor in what Montresor perceives to warrant a grievous end. Throughout their the interaction, there are subtleties in which one might think there is a way out, but ultimately greed takes over which leads to Fortunato 's undoing.
In the book Hamlet by Shakespeare, irony is used numerous times in order to give the reader insight on what is going on. As stated in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, irony is an action that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. If this strategy were not included in this drama, it would take away the whole purpose. This play would consist of no suspense and would be extremely boring to the reader because the characters would know as much as the readers know. This allows for incite to what can happen in the future or what has happened in the past. The irony in this play ultimately revolves around Hamlet and his plan to achieve revenge with Claudius. From the play that Hamlet organizes about the death of his father to the ending where Fortinbras happened to be at the right place at the right time to take over the throne in Denmark; this paper examines the cases in where irony is used to show how Hamlet is preventing his murderer uncle from getting away with his fathers death.
The main use of dramatic irony is throughout the story and is when Fortunato thinks Montresor is leading him to the cask of amontillado but the reader knows there is know cask of amontillado. Fortunato ask question about Montresor being apart of the mason and in paragraph 64 he proves it by saying “It is this,”I answered, producing from beneath the folds of my roquelaire a trowel” and this is dramatic irony because the reader knows that the trowel will be used in a way to kill Fortunato but he only sees it as proof that he is in the masonry. The last use of dramatic irony is on paragraph 5 “My dear Fortunato , you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking today” and this is dramatic irony because Montresor thinks of Fortunato as a fool and he is even wearing a jester outfit but Montresor compliments his looks. Dramatic irony is a main part of this story and it is used a lot and in many different
First, however, the use of verbal irony originates from when Fortunato, the murder victim, insults the narrator, Montresor. Montresor explains, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 1). This quote tells the readers that since Fortunato insulted Montresor, Montresor seeks revenge. Montresor uses verbal irony to take advantage of Fortunato so he wouldn’t question going into the catacombs to “taste rare wine”. For instance, in “The Cask of Amontillado Montresor acts like he is friends or acquainted with Fortunato, but he isn’t, this is one of Montresor’s plan to lure Fortunato into the catacombs without him questioning it. Poe writes, “I said to him—“My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day! But