Literary Elements In Edgar Allan Poe

The impact of the tragedies in Edgar Allan Poe’s life has undoubtably influenced the subject matter of his works. This, to me, has created one of the best authors of his time. In Poe’s lifetime, and literature, he had been portrayed as sort of a gothic author with themes like jealousy, death, and the fear of death; Symbolisms such as clocks; to the personification of death. Most, if not all, of Poe’s writings are focused around loss and the idea (and reality) of death. Edgar Allan Poe has loved and lost.

In “The Cask of Amontillado” Edgar Allan Poe uses verbal irony to emphasize the evil intentions of Montresor. Poe uses several instances of irony to demonstrate that Forntunato’s death is imminent and Montresor knows all along. One example of irony being used is when Fortunato says “the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough. ”(119)

Irony in “The Cask of Amontillado” Edgar Allen Poe wrote “The Cask of Amontillado,” where there are many examples of irony displayed from the narrator’s word choice, to sharing a drink of wine, and the symbol that the trowel represents. One of the first examples of verbal irony was when Montresor runs into Fortunato, whom he vowed revenge upon, dressed in a jester’s costume and had been drinking much.

As one of the most controversial American literary figures, Edgar Allan Poe has always attracted considerable attention from both critics and readers alike. Due to his allegedly eccentric personality and the dubious circumstances surrounding his death, the public perception of the writer has often been somewhat mythologized. When it comes to his works, Poe has been both critically acclaimed and disparaged, both acknowledged and disputed, but rarely ignored. As he left behind a significantly influential literary legacy, his place among the most important writers in American literature is today undeniable. Being both a journalist and a fiction writer, Poe produced numerous texts ranging from tales and poems to critical essays, reviews and newspaper

In Edgar Allen Poe’s, “Cask of Amontillado”, Poe skillfully uses verbal irony in order to demonstrate the villainous intentions of Montresor. The first example of verbal irony is when Fortunato, the victim, toasts “to the buried that repose” and Montresor, the murderer, “And I to your long life”(page 119). By now the reader is beginning to understand. Montresor's murderous intentions by Poe’s verbally ironic statements about life and death. Another, example of verbal irony is the play of the word “masons”.

From Annabel Lee to The Cask of Amontillado and Tell-Tale Heart, from The Raven to The Fall of House Usher, author Edgar Allan Poe has been mesmerizing his audiences with his one of a kind style for decades. Poe has a unique art which allows him to capture his audience's thoughts, feelings, and extend their imagination to places they've never been before by using using figurative language, syntax, and parallelism to control his readers view, opinion, and frame of mind in many of his writings. By focusing on symbolism and irony, Poe is able to add dimension to his writing that many are not able to. Poes rough life is a key source of inspiration for his demented writings. At the age of three, both of Poe's parents died.

The Three kinds of Irony at Their Finest Edgar Allan Poe uses the literary device irony to further emphasize the message his stories. In his short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” he masterfully incorporates irony into his story to make it more interesting. Montresor convinces Fortunato to come into the catacombs with him for a taste of a fine wine. Fortunato knows nothing about Montresor’s plan to murder him deep within these catacombs. Poe uses all three kinds of irony in this story to create a much more riveting tale.

Edgar Allen Poe is obviously a well-known author who know how to grab the reader’s attention with a crazy twists and tones in a matter of second. His poem “The Raven” uses negative connotative words in his writing to portray a dreary, agitated, and twisted tone. The use of those words shows how he feels throughout his own story. The words that are used also decide how the reader feel in the situation.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” irony is applied throughout to help foreshadow future and give more of an insight to the readers, all while adding some humor. Irony is divided into three main types: dramatic, situational, and verbal. Poe uses dramatic irony when he has Fortunato dress as a jester, “a tight-fitting parti-striped dress and his was surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (Poe). The get-up makes Fortunato looks foolish and foreshadows his actions of following Montresor into the catacombs to taste some wine. Montresor even compliments the outfit and says “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met” (Poe), but it was not Fortunato who was in luck, but Montresor who would gain profit of their meeting.

Did you know about the person who committed suicide? Well this is not that story, this story is about Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe has made a whale of an impact throughout his whole career of writing poems, short stories, and many more. Mostly all of his poems themes deal with questions of death, including its physical signs, the effects of decomposition, concerns of premature burial, the reanimation of the dead, and mourning. Poe uses Mood, Imagery, and Tone to emphasize his passion.

The Ironic Truth Irony is a complex and important element of literature that can help discover hidden perspectives within characters or hide the truth in plain sight. The story by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” is a great example the dark ironic twist that happen in the story. The main character, Montresor, is hell-bent on getting his revenge on the man who shamed him, Fortunato. The verbal and dramatic irony that is being used in the story “The Cask of Amontillado” helps hide the true intentions that Montresor has planned for Fortunato. Verbal irony happens when one character says one thing but actually means something completely different.

Many people go through horrors in their life. However, most don’t record them in the way Poe did. From a young age Poe experienced death in his family. As Poe lived his life, he started using his feelings and life experiences in his work. He based his feelings in his poems such as Annabel Lee and Alone.

“The Use of Irony in "The Cask of Amontillado" Edgar Allan Poe is a phenomenal writer and makes many points in his writings. There are three different ways in Poe 's writing of "The Cask of Amontillado" that irony is used: verbal, situational and dramatic. Verbal irony can be seen when Montresor first sees Fortunato at the carnival. Situational irony is also used and can be seen between the meaning of Fortunato 's name and his destiny, as well as Montresor 's response to his own. The last way irony is used is dramatic irony, this can be seen by any reader, this occurs when Montresor tells Fortunato he is also a mason.

By telling the poem “The Raven “in first person point of view we learn that the narrator is alone Because we hear his thoughts as well as his spoken words we learn of the loss of his beloved, “For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—“ the poem continues to chronicle the narrators search for the source of the noise. Without the first person point of view the narrators madness and anxiety would not be clear, Poe made it clear that the loss of a loved can create madness that can last forever. In the poem “The Raven,” Edgar Allen Poe uses repetition to builds suspense.

Edgar Allan Poe is known in America is the William Shakespeare of the lunatic asylum, which is distinguished by Tony Magistrate in his article “Poe, Edgar Allan 1809-1849” (8). Poe illustrates his characters with unstable minds and the inability to maintain self-control over their darkest urges. His stories are told in the first person by male narrators that make even the hesitant readers thrust into a crazed obsession of the horror stories (Magistrate 8). Poe used supernatural themes to address and to discover social anxieties concerning madness, disease, and death in a psychological version of Gothic literature. According to J. Gerald Kennedy in his book Phantasms of Death in Poe’s Fiction, Poe thought about death and the human soul more than the average person might (128).