Perhaps Montressor said that without thinking that he himself would be the cause of Fortunato’s death, or at least the agent to cause it.'The Cask of Amontillado' has been almost universally referred to as Poe's most perfect short story in fact, it has often been considered to be one of the world's most perfect short stories. I shall not die of a cough.” and Montressor replies- “True-true,…”, we cannot be sure that Montressor said that because he knew Fortunato was going to die by a different cause. For example, in the passage that Fortunato says- “Enough (…), the cough is a mere nothing it will not kill me. However, there are passages in which is impossible to assure that Montressor was using irony in his speech. Here, the irony dresses with a bitter taste of s*dist disguised angry. Once we are aware of Montressor’s intentions, we perceive that the real meaning of the sentence could be something like MY ODIOUS ENEMY FORTUNATO, IT IS BAD LUCK FOR YOU HAVING MET ME, for instance.

The reader that knows Montressor’s real intentions notices here that this greeting has another meaning, different from what it would mean if we did not know about Montressor’s plan. He greets Fortunato… “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met…”. In the second paragraph, Montressor states that in spite of his decision of killing Fortunato, he continued smiling in his face ( Fortunato’s ), but he adds: “…and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation.” So, when they meet each other they behaved as always, but now Montressor’s smile had another meaning for himself.Ĭertain evening, “during the supreme madness of carnival season…”, Montressor meets his “friend” Fortunato and Montressor is very kind, even affectionate towards him. Irony first appears in Fortunato’s name, once we are made aware, in the second paragraph, that he is going to be killed, but it (the irony) continues present during all the short story as something to call our attention to what is really happening.

In order to achieve his aim, Montressor elaborates a plan which consists basically of two steps: first, to take Fortunato to the catacombs of the Montressors, and second, to arrest Fortunato down there forever. The main character, a man called Montressor, feels terribly offended, even insulted by a friend named Fortunato, and firmly decides to take this friend’s life.

This summary theme, it’ll demonstrate how dramatic irony is used all along with the short story as a way of reminding us of the true intentions of the character who vowed revenge.įirstly, a brief summary of the short story: the story is supposed to happen more than a hundred years ago (it was first published in 1846) during Italian Carnival festivities. One of the main themes of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask Of Amontillado is revenge.

The amontillado by edgar allan poe