The Cask Of Amontillado Irony Essay

What would someone do if a supposed friend of theirs locked them in caliginous catacombs and abandoned them to die? “The Cask of Amontillado,” a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, follows a revengeful man named Montresor and his calculated quest against an unsuspecting man called Fortunato. The story, told from Montresor’s point of view, takes place surrounding the jubilant celebration of carnival. Montresor lures the naive Fortunato into the ominous catacombs. Montresor proceeds to intoxicate Fortunato and lead him to his death, resulting in Montresor fulfilling his revenge. However the reason for it remains unidentified. Through his use of carefully constructed irony, setting, and foreshadowing, Poe creates a mood that is both chilling and horrifying in “The Cask of Amontillado.” Throughout the story, Poe uses countless examples of irony to intensify the unsettling mood that he creates. In the beginning of the story, Fortunato encounters Montresor around dusk at a carnival party. Montresor says to him, “‘My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day!’” (374). The irony of this statement is that Montresor later goes on to kill Fortunato. He says those eerie words to Fortunato knowing that he will not show a glimpse of health in a mere few hours. An additional
The irony that is included throughout the story show Montresor as the monster he has become. The setting creates a basis for a terrifying mood that continues as the story progresses. The foreshadowing elements that Poe has thoroughly incorporated in the story allow the reader to not shake the tense feeling that Poe creates. Poe’s work in this story set a literary example for American Literature. Numerous authors throughout the world, such as Stephen King and Arthur Conan Doyle, incorporate Poe’s gothic work into their own