The Task of Amontillado Short Story

Yi Ching Kelly Wang

ENGL 151 SECT002

Terry Scarborough

Jan. 28 2014

It must be understood, that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation (Poe 372).

In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado, the author uses the name Fortunato, which means fortunate in Italian, to show the irony of the character. Fortunate can be associated with wealth, value, and luck. Fortunato is anything but fortunate because he is slowly walking to the end of his life through the story.

Irony plays a big role throughout the story. Using irony is to add a twist to the story and creates humor. The most widely used one is verbal irony, in which a person uses words to covey a meaning that is complete opposite of what it actually means. For example, when Montresor says: “’my friend, no; I will not impose upon your good nature’” (Poe 373), he does not want to take advantage of Fortunato but the readers know that it is the opposite of what he really wants. Foreshadowing is also highly used in the story. The purpose of foreshadowing is to create suspense as the author gives hints of actions that are coming. The title word “cask” refers to the word casket, which foreshadows that somewhere along the story death is involved. Fortunato thinks that he will get the cask of wine, he greets his casket instead.

Fortunato is a man with high status in society that “in other regards he [is] a man to be respected and even feared” (Poe 372). For the carnival season, “[Fortunato] [has] on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress and his head [is] surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (372), a clown-like dress that makes a fool of himself is ironic with his stature in the society. The carnival is supposedly a happy and bright celebration but the death of Fortunato takes place during the time of the event. When Montresor sees Fortunato, he...