"The Cask of Amontillado,"Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates every possible variation of irony while crafting a chilling tale of a man being chained, walled in, and left to die in a catacomb.
The Story
"The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge."The opening line of the story presents irony of situation. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me" is a sentence most all of us remember from childhood. Poe's speaker says the opposite. He has suffered injuries without complaint, but insults he will not abide. The protagonist Montresor has a name that means "my treasure." He declares his intention to wreak vengeance on unfortunate Fortunato, who has committed some unspecified insult to Montresor's name and reputation. Additionally, "a wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes the redresser." Montresor seeks not just to punish, "but to punish with impunity."
We know that Montresor hates Fortunato, but Fortunato is unaware of this. The doomed character is unaware that Montresor's friendly attitude is a fabrication of good will that his smile is at the thought of Fortunato's immolation. This dramatic irony will continue until the final page when Fortunato becomes an initiate.
The story takes place during the carnival season of madness and merrymaking. The drunken Fortunato is wearing motley and the cap and bells of a jester, but he is no wise fool. Montresor plays on Fortunato's pride in his wine connoisseurship, asking him to verify whether or not Montresor's recent bargain-price wine purchase is expensive Amontillado or ordinary Sherry. Fortunato agrees over Montresor's protests that it would be an imposition and a health danger, since the vaults where the wine is stored are cold, damp. Montresor's expressed concern for the other man's well-being is at odds with his true intentions.
How did Montresor know that no servants would be present? He had informed them that he would be gone all night and
"given them explicit orders not to stir from the house."That, he knew, would be enough "to insure their immediate disappearance" as soon as he left. That is a combination of verbal and situational irony.
The two descend into the catacombs, Montresor repeatedly expressing worry about the nitre-covered walls and exacerbation of Fortunato's cough. The unfortunate victim-to-be says, "the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough."
At its heart, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado is a revenge tale. An Italian nobleman, Montresor, concocts an elaborate plan to exact revenge for a series of slights inflicted upon him by his rival, Fortunato. Simple on the surface, yet Poe’s use of irony throughout the narration elevates it from a generic revenge story into a much more frightening horror story.
The use of irony is apparent in both the setting and the name of Montresor’s victim. The name Fortunato implies someone fortunate or lucky. Yet since Montresor states at the outset his intentions to harm his rival, the audience knows early on that Fortunato is most decidedly un-lucky. Likewise, when Fortunato encounters Montresor, it is at a carnival; a festive time of light, happiness and celebration. Probably one of the last things anyone would expect of a carnival is the culmination of a murder plot.
In keeping with the season and having partaken of the festivities, when we meet him Fortunato is dressed as a court jester or a fool. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Fortunato is a fool in truth, for Montresor fools him into believing in the existence of the story’s namesake wine until the bitter end. He is also proven a fool for believing Montresor has his best intentions in mind when, during their journey through the catacombs, his companion protests the dampness of the caverns will have an ill affect on Fortunato’s health and entreats him to turn back. As it turns out, the feigned concern is all part of the ruse used to lure Fortunato deeper into the trap, for the more Montresor suggests turning back the more determined Fortunato becomes to continue onward.
In addition to the setting and character names, much of the dialogue and interaction between the two characters is layered with irony. On several occasions, Montresor refers to Fortunato as
“my friend”when, of course, he considers the two to be bitter enemies. Later, while in the catacombs, he gives Fortunato a bottle of wine and offers a toast to his
“long life”,even though he plans to kill Fortunato in the catacombs. In one particularly chilling exchange, he even hints at the manner in which he intends to do away with Fortunato. After his inebriated victim asks if he is a Mason, referring to the fraternal order of Freemasonry, Montresor replies that he is indeed a mason—as in
The situation is also exacerbated by the sense of claustrophobia inherent in the narrow confinement suffered by the victim, a recurring theme in Poe's work (for instance in The Pit and the Pendulum).
The irony in the story summarizes the cunning way in which the relationship between Montresor and Fortunato is presented by Poe. It is to his credit that he dispenses with descriptive passages when these are not needed, and instead frequently lets the dialogue between the two characters drive forward the action, without the encumbrance of superfluous details. This foregrounding of the dialogue over other means of telling the story further personalizes the events, thus making it easier for the reader to become emotionally involved in them.
The story is not perfect. Despite the relatively economical narrative, some passages are still overwritten or too repetitive in their quest for a desired effect. One example of this flaw is the description of Fortunato's cough (fifteen consecutive "ugh"s!),5 which hampers the story's momentum to some degree. Such shortcomings, while certainly palpable, are ironically enough tempered by the very brevity of the story, as there is not enough time for them to grow into something fatal to the tale's effectiveness. Certain parts of the story, particularly towards the climax, also run the risk of seeming somewhat contrived. This is one instance where the tale's restricted length could be regarded as a weakness, and is especially noticeable when Montresor completes the final stage of his plan. It tends to come across as too convenient that, at least without sufficient prior or subsequent explanation, Montresor should suddenly have at his disposal all the equipment necessary for his plan, namely the bricks and mortar lying under the heap of bones on the floor. Nevertheless, this does fit, however elliptically, with Montresor's assertion at the beginning of the story that the certainty of his intentions
"precluded the idea of risk".
From a technical point of view then, it would indeed be fair to call The Cask of Amontillado flawed and no masterpiece. Even so, this verdict can never be completely unqualified or encompass all of the story's features. The tale can hardly be described as atrocious. What finally emerges as its real virtue, rather, is the effective presentation of a readily recognizable, albeit dark, aspect of human nature.
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