The Irony In The Cask Of Amontillado
Irony of The Cask of Amontillado
Many of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories contain a wide variety of irony, motifs, and symbolism. The unity of these elements within many of his tales creates specific moods in and throughout his works. One story in particular, The Cask of Amontillado not only displays Poe’s exquisite attention to detail and mastery of literary unity, but it clearly portrays his expertise in the use of irony within this story. The most evident use of irony is through the character’s name Fortunato. The name plainly means fortunate however, the very unfortunate fate of this character is obviously found out as the story unfolds. Poe uses several types of irony in The Cask of Amontillado. The irony of the situation in general is clearly stated in the first sentence, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” Basically the narrator states that the physical injuries he endured from Fortunato did not really bother him however, when Fortunato ventured upon verbal insult, the narrator then wanted revenge. Most …show more content…
Some of the times verbal irony is used to help to enforce the other uses of irony. For instance, as Fortunato is finding out his fate and trying to convince himself that it is a joke, he says that the Lady Fortunato will be waiting for him at the Palazzo, and "Let us be gone" and Montresor's response is "Yes." "Let us be gone." They both say the same thing, but to each of them it has drastically different meanings. Fortunato wants to go home, go to his wife. Montresor wants him to simply be gone, be gone from his life, and be gone from the world. It is an ironic play on words. However this verbal irony also can be taken as the dramatic irony as well, because the character Fortunato is finally beginning to see what the audience has known all along, but still doesn’t quite pick up on the verbal hints of
Many of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories contain a wide variety of irony, motifs, and symbolism. The unity of these elements within many of his tales creates specific moods in and throughout his works. One story in particular, The Cask of Amontillado not only displays Poe’s exquisite attention to detail and mastery of literary unity, but it clearly portrays his expertise in the use of irony within this story. The most evident use of irony is through the character’s name Fortunato. The name plainly means fortunate however, the very unfortunate fate of this character is obviously found out as the story unfolds. Poe uses several types of irony in The Cask of Amontillado. The irony of the situation in general is clearly stated in the first sentence, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” Basically the narrator states that the physical injuries he endured from Fortunato did not really bother him however, when Fortunato ventured upon verbal insult, the narrator then wanted revenge. Most …show more content…
Some of the times verbal irony is used to help to enforce the other uses of irony. For instance, as Fortunato is finding out his fate and trying to convince himself that it is a joke, he says that the Lady Fortunato will be waiting for him at the Palazzo, and "Let us be gone" and Montresor's response is "Yes." "Let us be gone." They both say the same thing, but to each of them it has drastically different meanings. Fortunato wants to go home, go to his wife. Montresor wants him to simply be gone, be gone from his life, and be gone from the world. It is an ironic play on words. However this verbal irony also can be taken as the dramatic irony as well, because the character Fortunato is finally beginning to see what the audience has known all along, but still doesn’t quite pick up on the verbal hints of