In Edgar Allan Poe’s works of gothic literature, “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Tell Tale Heart”, “The Raven”, and “Annabel Lee”, Poe uses suspenseful and morbid diction and syntax along with verbal irony to create an eerie mood.First of all, Poe uses repetition for effect in order to emphasize events in his story which helps to create an ominous …show more content…
In “The Cask of Amontillado” the narrator, Montresor, is on a mission to murder his “friend” Fortunato who has insulted him, and he plans to do so by tricking him into a wine tasting. In “The Cask of Amontillado” Poe uses verbal irony to almost lighten the mood, but adds a dark and almost undetectable undertone which is eventually very blatant. “ ‘I drink,’ he (Fortunato) said, ‘to the buried that repose around us.’ ‘And I to your long life.’ ” (Poe, 40). Fortunato is toasting to the dead skeletons of people around him, while Montresor ironically toasts to Fortunato’s long life. It is verbal irony because Montresor intends on killing Fortunato, yet is toasting to Fortunato’s long life. The irony adds a certain lightness to the overly dark mood of the plot, however the irony adds to the ominous tone because it adds humour to something so evil that the humour is considered to be immoral. Overall Poe uses verbal irony to add “forbidden” humour to his dark stories and in turn add to the sinister