Irony is a literary element that brings mystery, intrigue, and surprise to a story. In Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Cask of Amontillado," irony is used to portray the narrator, Montresor, as a befriending and innocent man. This depiction, however, is contradictory to that which Montresor really is: vengeful, deceitful, and evil. In this story, Montresor vows to seek revenge upon a friend of his, Fortunato, who has somehow insulted him. The reader, however, is unaware of the extent to which he has been insulted. One must trust Montersor's recollection of that fateful evening to gain a perspective of what occurs. In seeking revenge, Montresor caters to Fortunato's connoisseurship of fine wine by leading him into the depths of his estate's catacombs to sample the Amontillado he supposedly has purchased. Little does Fotunato know that he is being led to his demise. His fate is masked by Montresor's use of verbal irony to distract his friend from his sinister purpose. This use of irony leads to instances of both dramatic and situational irony, which misguide both Fotunato and the reader. Consequently, the use of verbal, dramatic, and situational irony establish Montresor and an unreliable narrator and contribute to the deception of the reader.
After reading the story in its entirety, the usage of irony becomes much more apparent than upon first glance. Verbal irony, which is the contradiction between what the narrator says and actually means, is much more noticeable. When Montresor first encounters Fortunato in the story, he says that "[he] was so pleased to see him that [he] thought [he] should never have done wringing his hand" (Poe, 191). When one first reads this, it appears as though Montresor is genuinely happy to see Fortunato. After all, Montresor refers to Fotunato as his "friend," and they meet one another "during the supreme madness of carnival season," which is supposed to be a joyous time of celebration (Poe, 191).
