“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is one of those stories that is dark and horrifying, but is well renowned for a being a great story. This story is a horror, psychological thriller, and I believe can be used into the insight into the human mind. The premise of this story is that of man known as Montresor is getting revenge on Fortunato for humiliating him personally. One of the many literary devices used in the story is irony. The irony used in this story is not regular irony but a dark almost twisted irony. The dark irony is short and subtle, but scattered though out the story, so I will discuss the irony in the beginning, middle and end of the story
In the beginning of the story there is not very much irony but it is present. …show more content…
The banter at the end where Fortunato is saying "Ha! ha! ha! --he! he! he! --a very good joke, indeed --an excellent jest. We will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo --he! he! he! --over our wine --he! he! he!" and think the whole thing is a joke and Montresor replies "The Amontillado!" sarcastically mocking him spoiling his fun. Montresor continues mocking Fortunato with own words and also giving his explanation for why he doing this to him. This is another prime example of how dark Poe goes with use of irony. When Fortunato sobers up to see Montresor build the wall that will seal him and sealing his fate. The place where he is murdered is also his final resting place and adding that it is the catacombs. Giving these two cases a level of irony with another on top increasing the darkness and the twistedness of the irony tremendously. The biggest case of dark irony in the entire story is the wine itself. Montresor know that Fortunato is very proud of is Italian heritage, he thinks of himself wine connoisseur, and in general a very proud man. So when Montresor tells Fortunato he has a pipe or 172 gallons of amontillado, a very high end Italian wine. It catches the attention of Fortunato very quickly. The entire time in the story Fortunato is led under the premise of tasting great wine but is being lead to his own death due to his own proud and greedy nature. That is the ultimate dark irony.
In conclusion,
In the beginning of the story there is not very much irony but it is present. …show more content…
The banter at the end where Fortunato is saying "Ha! ha! ha! --he! he! he! --a very good joke, indeed --an excellent jest. We will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo --he! he! he! --over our wine --he! he! he!" and think the whole thing is a joke and Montresor replies "The Amontillado!" sarcastically mocking him spoiling his fun. Montresor continues mocking Fortunato with own words and also giving his explanation for why he doing this to him. This is another prime example of how dark Poe goes with use of irony. When Fortunato sobers up to see Montresor build the wall that will seal him and sealing his fate. The place where he is murdered is also his final resting place and adding that it is the catacombs. Giving these two cases a level of irony with another on top increasing the darkness and the twistedness of the irony tremendously. The biggest case of dark irony in the entire story is the wine itself. Montresor know that Fortunato is very proud of is Italian heritage, he thinks of himself wine connoisseur, and in general a very proud man. So when Montresor tells Fortunato he has a pipe or 172 gallons of amontillado, a very high end Italian wine. It catches the attention of Fortunato very quickly. The entire time in the story Fortunato is led under the premise of tasting great wine but is being lead to his own death due to his own proud and greedy nature. That is the ultimate dark irony.
In conclusion,