Montresor says all cordial comments about Fortunato making him believe Montresor cares about his health. Montresor is actually going to kill Fortunato and Montresor will be overjoyed when Fortunato is dead. Another time irony provides the reader with more than the character’s knowledge is when Fortunato is dressed up for the carnival: he wears a parti-striped clown suit covered with bells (372). This is ironic considering that Fortunato is dressed up as a literal fool. However, he does not know that Montresor is actually treating him as a fool and that he is agreeing to follow Montresor to his death.
Irony in the “Cask of the Amontillado” In the “Cask of the Amontillado,” the author, Edgar Allen Poe, uses irony for a dramatic portrayal of two so called “friends.” In an 18th or 19th century city, during a Mardi Gras celebration, a man by the name of Montresor sees the very drunken Fortunato. Both Montresor and Fortunato are wine connoisseurs. Montresor uses Fortunato’s love of wine to lure him into the dark and damp catacombs. As he continues to give Fortunato wine, he begins to lead him into a niche. Montresor builds up a brick wall, enclosing him inside, causing Fortunado to suffocate, therefore killing him.
While Fortunato is looking around for the Amontillado, Montresor is building a wall to block Fortunato in which kills him. The story may seem simple at first, but Edgar Allen Poe littered it with ironies. Poe used both verbal and dramatic ironies. The ironies show a deeper meaning in everything Montresor says and in his actions. The first type of irony in the story, “The Cask of Amontillado”, is verbal irony.
Another example, when the author showed imagery is when Fortunato is screaming in pain, where he is tie against the walls. In “The Cask of Amontillado” it said, “A succession loud and shrill screams bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained Fortunato.” When the author tells this, you can visualize how Fortunato was screaming for his life to let him go and being tortured. Montresor chains Fortunato against the walls and start burying him alive. Just because Montresor felt insulted he planned to murder his friend. As a result, he got what he wanted, revenge all due to a
As Fortunato’s wine wears off, Montresor continues building. He never reflects upon the consequences of his actions, as he may have already delved deeper into insanity. Montresor is so determined to make this murder a complete success that he makes the wall look like the rest of the walls in the catacombs. "Against new masonry he re-erects the old rampart of bones" (Poe 531). He does this as to not raise any suspicion towards his actions or placate any scrutiny.
As the reader begins to read the story the author makes it very clear that Montresor wants revenge. The author tells us that the relationship between Montresor and Fortunato was not a good one. The first line of the story goes as follows “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” (Poe) Apparently, Fortunato had caused pain to Montresor multiple times in the past and Montresor was fed up with it, and finally decided to do something about it. As the story progresses the reader learns the different characteristics of each one of the men. Fortunato, the one who is killed is a jokester, the way the author tells the reader that is by describing his outfit at the carnival, which was a grand
This causes a slow and painful death for Fortunato. The fact that Montresor states that he is going to “punish with impunity” gives a eire almost spooky feeling, such as killing Fortunato is going to happen. But this feeling later turns to shock in the way that Montresor punished with impunity. In this story Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates that people can be driven by a passionate feeling of revenge and hate to do absurd and incomprehensible acts against their fellow man. In both the story and the film the reader picks up on the spooky and eerie feeling almost immediately.
Between two families, there was conflict because one family hurt another in a very bad way. Fortunato has wronged Montresor, but his ignorance leads him to think Montresor is his friend. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “A Cask of Amontillado” portrays the symbolic meaning of Fortunato’s death through some examples of instances where Poe symbolizes the Montresor motto, the laying of the bricks, and the jingling bells. First and foremost, the
Gothic Literature is a writing style that combines the elements of Romanticism, such as individuality and high passions, with situations of fear and suspense. This subgenre of Romantic Literature uses emotion as a technique to create metaphorical gender coding. By presenting overflowing emotions as a living or animated experience, characters in a Gothic work are given an additional layer of traits. According to Nicola Trott, the sublime is associated with masculinity by providing massive strength and size that induces terror. Sublimity creates terror through obscurity and uncertainty of potentially, irrationally terrible situations, such as murder or rape.
4 Aug. 2015. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” Online Posting. Web. 4 Aug. 2015.