Catherine Safar

Comp. 1301.31
Mr. Thompson
7 December 2016
Oh, The Irony
Is not it Ironic that the biggest dog in the world is named Tiny? Irony is used very
frequently in the world today in face-to face conversations, emails, and literary works. In the
short story The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, Montresor is out to kill a man named
Fortunato for impunity. Fortunatos love and knowledge of wine eventually was the key
component to getting him locked in the brick cell under the catacombs. Where he would spend
eternity. In the telling of this story Poe uses situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony to
connect with his theme of mortality.
Poe uses situational irony in four main points in this story. The first is how Fortunato is
introduced in the beginning. Montresor goes on to say he {Fortunato} was a man to be
respected and even feared (Poe), but whenever he meets him at dusk he is dressed as a fool.
This irony shows the foolishness that Fortunato possessed on that very night to follow Montresor
to his death. Secondly, when Montresor said to the servants I had told them that I should not
return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. When he
arrived back at the house they were all gone. This ensured the privacy of Fortunatos murder.
Third, Montresor wanted Fortunato to check out his cask of amontillado to see if it was really
amontillado wine. In this light, the word cask has two meanings. One meaning is a wine barrel.
The other meaning is it is the root word for the word casket. Therefore, Fortunato is actually

walking to his casket. The last indication of this kind of irony was that Fortunato was not very
fortunate on this night. The name Fortunato means fortunate in Italian.
In the verbal irony in the story Montresor brings up another form of the word fortunate.
Whenever Montresor meets Fortunato in the street. Montresor says My dear Fortunato, you are
luckily met. (Poe). Montresor is very happy to see Fortunato because it the first sign that his
plan has been put into motion. In contrary, this meeting is not a lucky one for Fortunato. As they
were walking to the catacombs Fortunato does a free-mason sign and asks Montresor if he is a
mason. Montresor says yes to this meaning he is a craftsman of brick and mortar. Which was
how he was going to murder Fortunato. Montresor also offers Fortunato wine named Flagon De
Grave, this name means of the grave. It is ironic because Fortunato will soon be in his grave.
There is also irony about how much Montresor cares about Fortunatos health. He even mentions
in the story, we will go back; your health is precious. When he obviously has no means of
keeping him alive.
Like in verbal irony, murder is also very apparent in the use of dramatic irony in the story.
Fortunato almost has no clue what is going on throughout the whole story. Montresor makes the
toast to Fortunatos long life. Poe made this joke between the audience and Montresor because
he is going to die. Another point Fortunato failed to interpret was Monstresors coat of arms. It is
a golden foot stepping on a snake that had just bitten the foot with the saying Nemo me impune
lacessit."(Poe). This quote is translated no one harms me with impunity which nearly means no
one can get away with hurting him. The snake is symbolic as Fortunato who bit the foot of
Montresor and Montresor is getting revenge by his murder. Overall, the reader and Montresor are
receptive of the fact that Montresor has Fortunatos murder well planned out. Once again, the

foolish Fortunato has no clue that this is happening. James F. Cooney said, But overlying the
story is irony that Montresor is not conscious of, an irony that only the reader is conscious of
The irony of The Cask of Amontillado is not a humorous type of irony. It is the Irony that
someone will soon die. Montresor had done this murder to make peace of mind with himself.
Whenever the story is ending he claims to be still telling the story fifty years later. Obviously he
has not been in peace if the story is still being told half a century after the fact. So the revenge
did not acquire him with the peace he thought it would have. The last line of the story was in
pace requiescat, which means rest in peace. We now know at least one of them will be resting in
peace.

Works cited

"The Cask of Amontillado." The Cask of Amontillado. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

Cooney, James F. "The Cask of Amontillado: Some Further Ironies." Short Story Criticism,
edited by Anna Sheets-Nesbitt, vol. 35, Gale, 2000. Short Story Criticism Online,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LCO&sw=w&u=txshracd2519&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CVE
HUIU586679863&it=r. Accessed 8 Dec. 2016. Originally published in Studies in Short
Fiction, vol. 11, no. 2, Spring 1974, pp. 195-196.