Edgar Allan Poe is known for his unique, murderous, and horrifying stories. Poe was born in Boston in 1809, and at age three his mother died, and he was abandoned by his father. He was then adopted and raised in Virginia, but never got along with his foster father. It has been noted that Edgar Allan Poe had a drinking problem that most likely aided to health problems and an early death. A few years before his death, he wrote a tale of revenge, "The Cask of Amontillado" (repr. In Thomas R. Arp, and Greg Johnson, Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 8th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2002] 680), and Edgar Allan Poe's numerous uses of irony and symbolism create this story, and underlie a tale of obsession.
             The story begins with the Montresor vowing revenge upon Fortunato for an insult, "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge." (p 680) The Montresor then entices Fortunato with Amontillado, which is an expensive Spanish sherry wine, and leads Fortunato to his own premeditated murder. Through the Montresor's point of view, you are able to view how most of this story is created from irony and symbolism.
             The first encounter of irony is Fortunato himself. Fortunato literally means to be fortunate, and Poe immediately allows the reader to know Fortunato's fate, who is anything but fortunate. Fortunato is also dressed in motley, which is a fools costume, for the carnival and the Montresor intends to make a fool of him. Poe uses dramatic irony to show Fortunato's own obsession as he hurries the Montresor: "Thus speaking, Fortunato possessed himself of my arm...I suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo." (p682) The Montresor repeatedly gives Fortunato a chance to turn back throughout the story, and Fortunato either insulted him further, or urged the Montresor to continue on, which hel
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