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Lee 1
Scott Lee
Prof. Margot Bruemmer
English 152
1/17/18
The Cask of the Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe
This is a story about a man (Montresor) wanting revenge on another man (Fortunato), a
friend who, he believes that insulted him. The story takes place somewhere in Italy during the
carnival season. Montresor, a conniving character that he is, uses the carnival setting to his
advantage by using manipulative methods to get a drunk Fortunato into believing that he has
purchased a rare wine. Fortunato is eager to try it and ends up leading himself into his own death.
Edgar Allen Poe uses literary device, irony, in the plot, setting, and characters of, “The Cask of
the Amontillado”, to portray and foreshadow the downfall of the character Fortunato. Poe uses
both dramatic and verbal irony throughout the entirely of this story and he uses it to develop the
story and give life to the plot. He creates a simple tale of revenge and uses irony to make a much
more suspenseful and haunting tale of horror.
The title of “The Cask of the Amontillado” is ironic because the word cask is derived
from the same word as casket. At the end of the story, a casket is literally built up around
Fortunato using the Amontillado as bait. His lust and enthusiasm for the rare wine was his
downfall. Montresor stated in the beginning of the story, “He [Fortunato] prided himself upon his
connoisseurship in wine.” (Poe, paragraph 3). Montresor knows that Fortunato will be
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enthusiastic to sample the wine and uses this knowledge as bait, thus Fortunato is excited to be
led to his own death. His lust for the wine entomb him.
Irony is also found in the plot of “The Cask of the Amontillado”. A few examples of
verbal irony are when Montresor says to Fortunato, “we will go back, your health is precious.”
(Poe, paragraph 35), and this is ironic because Montresor doesn’t care at all for Fortunato’s
health, he plans to kill him. Another example of verbal irony is when Montresor says to
Fortunato, “I have my doubts, I replied; and I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price
without consulting you in that matter. You are not to be found, and I was fearful of losing that
bargain.” (Poe, paragraph 7). This is ironic because Montresor says that he has his doubts, but he
is obviously lying. He wants to know if Fortunato got his hands on the real wine so that
Montresor can use the Amontillado as bait to lure Fortunato into his trap. Another example of
