Short story analysis essay
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest authors and poets America has ever seen. He is well known as a master of using irony in his stories. “The Cask of Amontillado,” is a horror story about the revenge of Montresor upon Fortunato. Fortunato believes montresor is his good friend, but he ends up being chained and walled in to the catacombs. There are three types of irony used in this short story verbal, dramatic, and situational irony.
Poe’s use of verbal irony is very well. The first piece of irony he uses is the name “Fortunato,” because it means fortunate which is ironic because he ends up dead at the end which makes him not fortunato. Another is when fortunato follows montresor to the vault, montresor pretends to care about fortunato by saying, “we will go back; your health is precious to me.” This shows irony because the reader obviously knows from the beginning that montresor wants to kill fortunato.
The second irony used is dramatic irony. Fortunato feels really excited about trying an old and rare wine and keeps looking for amontillado, but fortunato does not know that amontillado is something made up by montresor to send fortunato to his eternal resting place. He is the only person who thinks that amontillado does exist in the vaults of montresor’s family. Fortunato also refers to montresor as his friend which is another example of dramatic irony.
The final irony used by poe is situational irony. Montresor is a really clever man to plan such an elaborate plan for revenge. Starting from convincing fortunato to go to the catacombs, montresor chains fortunato to the wall, buries him alive, and gets the revenge, without any doubt from fortunato. At the end of the story, montresor says to fortunato “in pace requiescal.” This means rest in peace in latin which is ironic as well.
Poe uses many verbal ironies, dramatic ironies, and situational ironies throughout “The Cask of Amontillado,” to enhance the details of his story....