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Literary analysis of the cask of amontillado story
Literary analysis of the cask of amontillado story
Literary analysis of “the cask of amontillado”
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The first way irony is depicted is in the character’s name, Fortunato. The name “Fortunato”
breaks down into “fortunate” and “lucky one”. However, in the short story, this character
becomes just the opposite. The protagonist, Montresor, seeks revenge for whatever crime
Fortunato has committed against him. As such, Montresor lures him into a trap which leads
him to death. Montresor knows Fortunato’s greatest weakness which is his love for wine and
uses it to draw him to his own death (Poe). He tells Fortunato of a special wine called
Amontillado, making Fortunato hunger for the drink. Montresor leads him to his wine cellar
and drugs him along the way. As Fortunato coughs on the way due to the dampness in the air,
Montresor pretends to care and insists on turning around, but Fortunato refuses saying, “The
…show more content…
I shall not die of a cough” (Poe). The irony in his name is
that he ends up dying of starvation and dehydration. Right before Montresor buries Fortunato
alive, he imprisons him in chains, foretelling his bad fortune.
In addition, irony is expressed in the short story’s setting. The story originally takes place
at a carnival. A carnival that has much laughter and gaiety. It shifts from a place of gaiety to a
place of death. Montresor takes Fortunato from the laughter to the exact opposite place.
Fortunato is dressed like a clown for the carnival for he wore, “a tight-fitting parti-striped
dress, and his head surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (Poe). His costume is ironic,
because of where it leads him. The setting of light and a merry life ironically shifts to the
setting of darkness and death.
Youngblood
Though Fortunato is an intelligent wine expert, his expertise leads him to his death. In Italian the word Fortunato means fortunate, something that he is not by the end of the story. In “The Cask of Amontillado” Edgar Allan Poe uses foreshadowing and dramatic irony and verbal irony to show Fortunato’s misfortunes which eventually lead to his death.
In the passage "The Cask of Amontillado” the characters have a unique relationship that is certainly one-sided. Irony is defined as the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies to opposite, usually used as sarcasm or as a hypothetical meaning. Fortunato and Montresor are explained by how their relationship is so different from one verses the other. In the story "The Cask of Amontillado" Edgar Allen Poe explains a lot about situational, dramatic and verbal irony.
He uses the precise and cunning tactics to seek revenge against his acquaintance, Fortunato, but wishes to do so in a clever way that he will not get caught. He tells Fortunato that he has obtained a wine that could be Amontillado, but he does not invite Fortunato into his home. He knows Fortunato would never pass up an opportunity to test his intelligence knowledge of wine. By that way, Montresor can complete his plan without putting himself responsible.
Fortunato is a man with stature who is “rich, respected, admired” (Baym). Yet, Fortunato decides to wear a “tight- fitting parti-striped dress, and his head [is] surmounted by the conical cap and bells” for the carnival season (Baym ). In comparison, Montresor is darkly dressed as if a priest giving a funeral
“The Cask of Amontillado” written by Edgar Allen Poe displays various styles of irony such as dramatic irony, situational, and verbal irony, verbal irony. Dramatic Irony is when the narrator or character knows less than the readers, situational irony is an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what happens, and verbal irony is when what is said conveys the opposite of what it according to the text Portable Literature. Through these forms of irony Montresor displays his underlying motive for Fortunato’s murder. Baraban describes the motive for Fortunato’s murder.
the story starts out in the familiar festive social setting of the carnival. In this catholic celebration, people dress in costume and masks and drink. This celebration occurs just before Lent on the Christian calendar. This setting is conventional, making it hard to tell the identity of each other. This creates a sense of chaos and estrangement, commonly found in the gothic genre. However, this is also an unconventionally ironic setting to start a story about revenge because the carnival was a celebration of life, yet Montressor has chosen this day to commit murder. furthermore, it is then introduced to Fortunato, who is dressed in motley. This is ironic because his name means fortunate, yet he is dressed as a fool. The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting pants-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells. I was so pleased to see him that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand. This characterization also symbolizes his character because his arrogance and ego are what cause him to be foolishly misled by Montressor to his death. Montressor is also dressed according to his character. The story dresses him in black with a mask, symbolizing evil and death. The irony of the way that these characters are dressed add to the terror of the story because it states that although Fortunato Is actually foolish, he is an innocent drunk who does not deserve to die. Montressor is a mysterious evil character because the reader never find out the reasoning behind his actions and, therefore, can perceive him early on as a psychotic and evil person. This mystery is even further unsettling for the reader. Later on in the story, their characters become even more obvious. Fortunato is unable to realize Montresor 's intentions. He makes a reference to the freemason, which he believe Montressor is not part of. Ironically, Montressor makes a disturbing joke that he
In the story “The Cask of Amontillado”, the author uses lots of verbal irony to emphasize the evil intentions of Montresor.One of the examples of verbal irony in the story that he uses is “The cough’s a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.” and “true--true, I replied.” The effect of this irony is it that Montresor already knows how Fortunato will die.Another example of verbal irony used in the story was when they did a toast to each other. “I drink”, he said, to the buried that repose around us.”
Dramatic irony is used when we know, or draw a conclusion of, what will happen to Fortunato, although he continues his descent into the catacombs in pursuit of the Amontillado. The sense of revenge reaches its highest peak when Poe uses irony for Montresor to inform us that he will smile in Fortunato's face while using his wine to lure him into the catacombs to taste his imaginary Amontillado. During this scene like a fool in his costume while Montresor is leading him to his death bed. This whole time Montresor plays very innocent.
This adds to the dark mood of the story by showing the reader how much Montresor plans on going with his chance for vengeance. In the beginning of the story, Montresor sees Fortunato at Carnival dressed as a jester and says,“My dear Fortunato you are lucky we met. How remarkably well you are looking today!” Carnival is a huge celebration held before Lent, forty days before Easter, and the festival ends with Shrove Tuesday which is a large feast that leads into Lent.
The first irony is verbal irony. Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant. There are many examples of this kind of irony through this story. The first irony is the name “Fortunato.” Fortunato’s name suggests good fortune, or of being fortunate, but he is exactly the opposite, he is killed. Another irony is when Fortunato follows Montresor go to the vault, Montresor acts like he cares about Fortunato’s health, “we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible.” (1202) But readers know from the beginning of the story, Montresor only wants to kill Fortunato. “And I to your long life,” (1202) Fortunato has lived out his life already, it is about to be over. Going deeper into the vaults, Fortunato gets more and more coughing, and Montresor shows his concern to Fortunato’s health “Come, we will go back ere it is too late. Your cough—“It is nothing.”(1202) But Montresor knows that the more he acts as he cares Fortunato, the more Fortunato wants to reach Amontillado-his dark fate. Fortunato is a man who is being blindly led to his death by someone who he feels as an admiring friend, but this friend is actually a person in searching for his own revenge.
The protagonists Montresor wants to get back at Fortunato for deeply insulting him and Montresor vows for revenge. During the fall carnival, he sees his opportunity and is quick to pounce on this and put his plan into place. “With Fortunato intoxicated and falling and stumbling all over the place Montresor knows that the time is now” (Russell 211). Montresor knows Fortunato’s weakness for wine and Montresor tells him he found Amontillado a very rare wine and it is in his vault. Montresor knows how far Fortunato will go for wine as rare as Amontillado and that is what eventually leads to his tormented and revengeful death. Edgar Allan Poe also gives lots of scenes that foreshadow to the future and the plotting about the death of Fortunato and the steps leading up to it. “The great example is putting Montresor into the future fifty years later telling the story and everything that went into the murder that he had committed” (Elliot 268). Poe depicts that revenge is very sweet and even fifty years later, that the deep gothic death and revenge themes still show up in Poe’s writings (Russell
The climax is the fact that Montresor was going to get his revenge by tricking and killing Fortunato. Then we have the setting, where it takes place in an old wine cellar that lead to the theme death. In the wine cellar there were old bones of the Montresor family along the wall, which I found quite interesting because Fortunato insulted the family name of Montresor and is now going to die with the Montresor’s family. It’s a perfect plan for revenge; if one insults the family name, one will die with remains of the family that one insulted. Therefore, both the climax and the setting help make the theme revenge and death strong throughout the
Montresor is dressed in, “a mask of black silk”, and “a roquelaire” (Poe 544). His costume is reminiscent of death; this detail foreshadows Fortunato’s death at Montresor’s hands. He is portrayed as death leading Fortunato from his world of pleasure to be chained in hell below. This is in stark contrast to Fortunato’s costume which represents a court jester, or a fool; “He had on tight-fitting parti-striped dress and his head was surmounted by a large conical hat with bells” (543). This foreshadows Fortunato’s foolishness in his willingness to be so easily manipulated by Montresor.
Beginning with the title of his story, Poe utilized the same base word for both cask and casket, which is ironic in that the journey to a wine barrel leads Fortunato’s to his final resting place. The irony is not apparent at first, but Poe informs the reader with his first line that this is a tale of revenge. Montresor stated “but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (Poe 714). With the prior knowledge that Montresor is anticipating Fortunato’s downfall, with Fortunato blissfully unaware of that fact, the readers are now conscious of the inherent dramatic irony. This knowledge also emphasizes the recurrent irony that is presented in the conversation between the two men. When Montresor greets Fortunato and tells him “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met” (Poe 715), Poe has made it clear that a catastrophe is about to befall him, thereby rendering Fortunato unquestionably unlucky. The concern Montresor demonstrates for Fortunato’s cough, and Fortunato’s nonchalant reply, “the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me” (Poe 716), is an example of both dramatic and verbal irony. Poe has shown that Montresor is not in the least bit concerned with Fortunato’s health and that he is staging Fortunato’s demise. Another example of irony Poe depicts, is when Fortunato asks Montresor if he is a mason. Montresor then produces a trowel and confirms that he is in a fact a
While at the carnival, Montresor bought some of the finest Amontillado wine to use in his vengeful plan to murder Fortunato. He then meets his "friend," Fortunato. Fortunato is wearing "a tight fitting parti-striped dress and head is surmounted by the conical cap and bells" (Poe 528). By him wearing this outfit, makes it great for the narrator because he is going to make a fool out of Fortunato. Montresor is a manipulative person. He challenges Fortunato's connoisseurship on wine tasting and leads him to his family estate.