”The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe Essay Sample

Throughout Edgar Allen Poe’s short narrative. a sense of sarcasm is present. with Montresor and the reader knowing of the program for retaliation. and with Fortunato blissfully unaware ; this sense of sarcasm colludes with the ever-descending scene. which deepens into a ghastly vision of the belowground grave where Montresor’s ascendants are buried. As the double tones of macabre panic and dry wit continue to make narrative tenseness. the reader is left inquiring merely how serious will be the retaliation that Montresor expects to demand against his enemy. If he means to merely mortify the adult male. why so the sense of predicting day of reckoning and deadliness that pervades Montresor’s narrative? And if Montresor means to kill his enemy. what precisely is the intent of these minutes of dry wit?

The most acute sarcasm of the narrative occurs near the denouement. Fortunato. now exhaustively rummy ( on both vino and amour propre ) refuses to do note of the countless hints: including the castanetss.

the trowel. and Montresor’s confession that his household slogan is “Nemo me impune lacessit. ” and due to his unmindful nature. acts out the stairss of his ain undoing. In fact. it is by his ain actions that Fortunato’s slaying is accomplished.

At the story’s near. wit and sarcasm turn to the full to a macabre sense. However. the discharge of Poe’s narrative shows that all of the comedy and sarcasm that have passed before are in fact subservient to the elements of panic and horror which form the story’s anchor. In this manner. Poe uses wit to escalate the hideous impact of his narrative. demilitarizing the reader by manner of amusing alleviation. and seting the concluding seed of panic steadfastly in their imaginativenesss.