Recommended Reading; "The Cask of Amontillado"

The fiction we have read this quarter has all been interesting in its own way, my favorite however and the one I would recommended to friends is "The Cask of Amontillado". The short story, written by Edgar Allen Poe, has a very dark and sinister plot underneath the cheery mask of the carnival. We follow Montressor through the catacombs as he narrators his story of murdering his friend. Montressor is an unreliable narrator in this story since everything is told in first person by  him, and he is the one committing the crime as well. We start to wonder whether or not the whole story is true, whether or not he really had a motive to kill Fortunato, or which bits and pieces are true if the whole story is not. It brings mystery and intrigue to the reading of the story and complexity of the plot.  

Throughout the story Poe uses dramatic irony to increase the mystery of Montressor's intensions and bring humor with the murder. For example, as they are heading down to the catacombs, Montressor opens up a bottle of "De Grave" wine and presents it to Fortunato to drink, foreshadowing his death. Along with the dramatic irony are the ironic names of the characters. Montressor sounds almost like monster and in the story he truly is monster like. Fortunato sounds like fortune which is ironic because he does not know what fortune awaits him down in the catacombs. Overall, the humorous irony and mysterious narrating make "The Cask of Amontillado" an appealing story to read and recommend.