Irony In Edgar Allen Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado

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Irony is an important part of any story. As Thomas Foster writes in “How to Read Literature” that “irony trumps everything.” Some authors employ the use of irony to develop theme, setting, tone, or add depth to their characters. One example of this is Edgar Allen Poe using irony in “The Cask of Amontillado” to develop several themes, tones, and possibly some character depth. READ POETRY 846-848

Edgar Allen Poe is adept in using irony to portray grim themes. Mortality is one of the more prominent themes in “The Cask of Amontillado”. Poe starts of the story with irony in regards to mortality in the form of Montresor and Fortunato being at a carnival, a place of celebration, happiness, light, and life. This is a major contrast to later on when Montresor brings Fortunato into his family caverns a place of mourning, sadness, darkness, and
Fortunato name might stand for a number of things. Fortunato 's name can be seen as irony, because he ends up being very unfortunate in the fact that he is fooled into following Montresor into the catacombs only to be shackled to a wall and left to die. Perhaps another meaning to Fortunato’s name is that Fortunato was rich or won things that Montresor did not. This could give Montresor the motive of jealousy instead of just purely betrayal. It is also quite possible that Fortunato could have amassed his wealth by cheating and betraying Montresor. Montresor’s name could be used in showing that he is a monster, and it could have been on no part of Fortunato besides misfortune that Montresor killed him. Montresor could have been insane and only imagined that Fortunato had mistreated him time and time again. This would be a possibility due to Montresor never stating exactly what Fortunato had done to desire his cruel punishement. It would also act as an explanation to why Fortunato would trust someone that Montresor had borne one thousand injuries

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