Irony Essay: The Cask of Amontillado Irony can bring a lot to the big table of the essence of a story. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, the work of classic American author Edgar Allan Poe, irony is being used to further express the dark essence of the story being told. It is a story of a man named Montressor, who holds a murderous grudge against a renowned connoisseur of fine wine that he calls his friend. The story explains the progress of Montresor's plan to kill or punish Fortunato. The reason for the hatred, however, is not known at all. One type of irony in the story is the antagonist's name: Fortunato. It derives from the latin word “fortuna” which means fortune. However, he was not fortunate at all. In the end of the story he was tricked by a man he called his friend. He was …show more content…
This is dramatic irony because the readers know that he will in fact, be missed. By the end of the story, the readers know that Montressor will lock Fortunato up in a seemingly random part of the catacombs to die in the silence of his thoughts, damp air, and nitre filled surroundings. Fortunato also says, “The cough’s a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.”
Another, and my final, example of irony in this story is that both men drink to Fortunato’s long life whilst in the damp catacombs. This is ironic because the readers know that Fortunato’s life will not be as long as he hopes it will be. He will be trapped in a niche until he dies from starvation, dehydration, or by the cough he has. I infer that Montressor would like Fortunato to have a long life in that niche so that he will suffer for the unsaid offense he inflicted upon
In “The Cask of Amontillado” Edgar Allan Poe uses verbal irony to emphasize the evil intentions of Montresor. Poe uses several instances of irony to demonstrate that Forntunato’s death is imminent and Montresor knows all along. One example of irony being used is when Fortunato says “the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough. ”(119)
In the “Cask of Amontillado” Montressor is a very angry and vengeful man. He says that he was insulted by Fortunato, but fails to give a reason as to why or how. He begins to enact his revenge by luring Fortunato in with the rare wine and when his “friend” Fortunato is drunk, he t proceeds to bring him deeper and deeper underground, while telling him to turn around repeatedly. Once he reached a place where no one can hear them, Fortunato walked into what he thought was another corridor, but it would turn out to be his grave! For as soon as Fortunato hit the wall, Montressor chains him against it.
In Edgar Allen Poe’s, “Cask of Amontillado”, Poe skillfully uses verbal irony in order to demonstrate the villainous intentions of Montresor. The first example of verbal irony is when Fortunato, the victim, toasts “to the buried that repose” and Montresor, the murderer, “And I to your long life”(page 119). By now the reader is beginning to understand. Montresor's murderous intentions by Poe’s verbally ironic statements about life and death. Another, example of verbal irony is the play of the word “masons”.
What is the mental state of a man who is going to kill people? How do people feel when they see the last moment of their friend? “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is the story of a man who vowed revenge because of humiliation. When the night of the carnival, Montresor came up with a terrible plan. Fortunato whom he hates is a fool for wine.
His total obliviousness to the situation allows Montresor to take his revenge by easily manipulating Fortunato, starting when they meet at the carnival and lasting until Montresor chains Fortunato to the enclave’s wall (432). Poe introduces verbal irony through Montresor’s manipulative words, as the entire time Montresor is leading Fortunato down into the catacombs, he continuously badgers his drunken companion about the environment being bad for Fortunato’s health, even saying, “Your health is precious” (429). The voiced “concerns” qualify as verbal irony because the audience is already well aware that Montresor does not give a damn about Fortunato’s health and is only luring him into the catacombs to exact revenge. The third type of irony, situational, is not used by Poe until the end of the story when Montresor has almost completely sealed away Fortunato in the Montresor family tomb. When Fortunato stops yelling and making noise, Montresor immediately wants to know if he is still alive, so he drops “a torch through the remaining aperture….There came forth only in return a jingling of the bells” (432).
One example of situational irony is first, the name “Fortunato” means “Fortunate” in Italian, but Fortunato is actually very unfortunate. Next, the word “cask” means “wine barrel,” but coffin also comes from the same word. So in other words, Fortunato believes he will reach a cask of wine, but in all actuality he will reach his coffin. Also, another great example of situational irony comes when Montresor has just dismembered Fortunato and exits the catacombs. Then, Montresor claims, “My heart grew sick-“(240).
He has plotted a revenge for him so that Fortunato could get what he deserved. Montresor planned for Fortunato to get drunk and then lure him to his home where he will kill him . After Fortunato is led back to Montresor’s house be deceiving him and took him to the catacombs of the Mansion where the supposed Amontillado wine is. Montresor was planning to trap Fortunato in the catacombs to kill him, this is an extremely horrible death. Dying of starvation or thirst would be a painful way to go especially in a dark catacomb surrounded by skeletons and the smell of rot and dampness.
In the short story by Edgar Allen Poe, there are countless examples of irony to convey Montresor’s unlawful act, while applying an additional layer of irony to sabotage his revenge. An example of situational irony Poe uses in the story is simply the name Fortunato. Fortunato is an Italian name that means good fortune or luck. This is an example of situational irony because his name means the complete opposite of what he actually was.
As readers, we have no idea what Fortunato did to Montresor or his family name to drive him to such revenge. Poe hints at certain things, from revenge and the family crest to his arrogance of insisting that Fortunato penetrate the Montresor vault to acquire the esteemed Cask Amontillado. "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge" (1126). The only clue is that Montresor systematically closes up Fortunato in a bone chamber perhaps with others who have wronged his family in the past. However, due to the reader's not knowing his true injustice, his murder seems unjustified and maybe even cruel to some
In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” irony is applied throughout to help foreshadow future and give more of an insight to the readers, all while adding some humor. Irony is divided into three main types: dramatic, situational, and verbal. Poe uses dramatic irony when he has Fortunato dress as a jester, “a tight-fitting parti-striped dress and his was surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (Poe). The get-up makes Fortunato looks foolish and foreshadows his actions of following Montresor into the catacombs to taste some wine. Montresor even compliments the outfit and says “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met” (Poe), but it was not Fortunato who was in luck, but Montresor who would gain profit of their meeting.
In the short story ,”Cask of Amontillado,” there are many examples of irony used by Poe throughout the story. In the story, the Narrator’s biggest challenge is to get revenge on Fortunato for “one thousand injuries,” but he has to plan how he’s going to do it successfully without getting caught. When the Narrator randomly runs into Fortunato, the author states that, “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met.” (Poe 59). This is an example of verbal irony because the Narrator didn’t mean it was lucky for Fortunato because he was just telling us how he vowed revenge on him.
He states that Fortunato is a respected man, and that he will be greatly missed, and that he is happy as he once had been. He insists on turning around, and Fortunato refuses. Fortunato says that a cold shall not kill him, and he insists on moving forward. Montresor, I believe, enjoys the irony and agrees that a cold shall not kill him, because he knows that he will be the cause of Fortunato’s death. Fortunato’s lack of knowledge allows his to easily fall for Montresor’s 3rd step in his
Like mentioned earlier the couch of Fortunato is also an example of dramatic irony because Fortunato thinks he will live on and that the couch won’t kill him but the reader has been informed by Montresor that he will get his revenge on him by killing him and Fortunato does not expect anything like that from Montresor. The trowel that was thought of Fortunato as a joke because he stated “you jest” and this is also an example of dramatic irony. The irony is that while he thinks it’s a joke in reality Montresor is showing him the tool that will lead to his death. While Fortunato was laughing at the trowel Montresor knew that he would you that tool to finish his
The author's choice of words helps create the mood of shock because he describes Montresor’s actions after Fortunato gets a sense of what is being done to him. The author’s description keeps readers in shock because they can’t believe how cold Montresor was. Even though he never showed the side of him, he had it all along. The author’s use of words in the description makes the readers feel like they are in the story wondering what will happen next. Poe wanted the reader to understand what was going on in the “Cask of Amontillado”, so he wrote a detailed story choosing words that connected with his readers.
The final way irony is used is dramatic irony, this can be seen by any reader, this occurs when Montresor speaks to Fortunato and he states he is a mason as well. This was stated to put Fortunato at ease as we are to assume Fortunato was a freemason, Fortunato asks for a sign and Montresor produces a trowel, one of the working tools of a Mason, moreover this seems to convince Fortunato that his friend is a freemason. Montresor may also have been alluding to the plan to wall up Fortunato using bricks and mortar. Montresor was using the word mason as in someone who builds with stone and mortar, because he will be building Fortunato 's tomb, a stone wall.