irony in "The Cask of Amontillado" Poe
Uploaded by snuggle_me_pink on Oct 12, 2006
The Cask of Amontillado
Written by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” was a short story of lies and deceit. It was also a story full of irony. There are three different kinds of irony. There is verbal irony, dramatic irony, and irony of the situation. Each of these plays a key role in forming the story and it’s characters. With some of these occurrences, one might exclaim aloud at the sight of the irony. Other times, some one could not realize there was irony until after reading it. How often does irony make an appearance in this short story, and what is its importance? Irony is important as it is entertaining. Verbal irony is when you say something while really meaning another. Like sarcasm, it can mean the complete opposite of what it seems when looked at carefully. For example, in “The Cask of Amontillado”, a masked Montresor encounters Fortunato (Italian for “fortunate”), the one man that he loathes and seeks cold, calculated revenge upon for some insult that is unknown to the reader, at the carnival (Poe, 6). Montresor smiles at the thought of Fortunato’s destruction as he tells him that he is looking remarkably well (Poe, 6). One might not realize how ironic this is if they did not know what the carnival season is. Another name for Mardi Gras, the carnival season is filled with costumes, laughter, and wine (Poe, 6). Since Fortunato is one to join in on the carnival festivities, so was he. Dressed in a jester’s outfit, bright bells donned his hat, costume, and feet. Red and gold velvet danced on his outfit as he pranced about in his red leggings. He looked quite the fool, and everybody knew it but him (Poe, 7). “Remarkably well” wasn’t exactly the phrase to describe his outfit.
Another kind of irony is dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when the reader knows something that the character definitely does not. This kind of irony is important because without it, there wouldn’t be as much suspense in the story or screaming “no, don’t do that!” at the characters. Since the story was written in first person, we knew of Montresor’s plans for Fortunato (Poe, 8). Montresor was planning to lead Fortunato into the catacombs, and his planning was good (Poe, 8). Knowing Fortunato’s weakness for wine, he used it to his advantage, telling a falsehood of buying a pipe...