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Zeke Mendenhall

Ms. Oberg

English 11

22 September 2015

Sensory Detail and Irony In a Cask Of Amontillado

In A Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe delivers a very detailed story of murder.

He adds to the details by telling it from the murders point of view. Poe does this by the use of

irony, imagery/sensory detail, and onomatopoeias to show the craze of the murderer. Edgar Allen

Poe furthers the story by adding in multiple accounts of irony and sensory detail. This story

succeeds so well because it engages the reader.

Irony is saying what you mean in a sarcastic way. Irony is used a lot in books and play as

a way to reveal the plot without the knowledge of the character. Poe uses this to engage the

reader to read The Cask of Amontillado. The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I

best could (3). Poe uses this to show irony because he has the main character, Montressor, talk

about the thousand injuries he had received. Poe uses this to engage the reader and understand

what was happening in the story. This worked because it helped the reader understand what Poe

was writing.

Imagery and Sensory Detail are used to get the reader's attention and have them imagine

what the author is saying. Authors use this so that the reader envisions what the story is telling

them. This technique is used to have the story more realistic to the reader. Poe uses this very well

so the reader knows and envisions what is happening. The gait of my friend was unsteady, and

the bells upon his cap jingled (5). This is a great of example of imagery, you imagine the bells

as well as hearing them jingling upon his head. Another example of this is: We passed through a
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range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again (7). This example is a great

for imagery, you just imagine going through low arches then going down and down again.

Onomatopoeias are a way for the author to make us see the word, and then

associate it with a sound. This is a great way for the author to catch the reader's attention.

Poe demonstrates this clearly when Fortunato says Ugh-Ugh-Ugh-Ugh (5). Poe uses

this example to make us envision Fortunato coughing at the nitre. This is significant

because we see the word and associate it with a coughing sound. We the readers are

pulled into the story because we associate that word with a sound and we understand

what is happening. Another great example is when Poe uses Fortunato again when

Fortunato says He! he! He! (10). This is a great example of onomatopoeia because we

again recognize that word then put it to a sound. This technique further helps Poe to

create a masterful story of a murder, and he is successful at doing that because he

captures our attention. He captures and retains our attention because we the readers are

accepting the technique so we imagine the story.

In conclusion, Poe creates a masterful story that makes the reader enjoy it and

keep reading. He does this because he draws the user in and gets them addicted to the

story because the use of different techniques. The techniques were ultimately successful

because they caught our attention. Irony is a way to get the reader's attention through

sarcasm and language that means the opposite of what is said. Imagery and Sensory detail

are useful for making the user imagine what the scene is. Onomatopoeia is a great

technique to have the reader look at a word and associate it with a sound so the reader

ultimately understands what the author is saying. Poe created a wonderfully crafted story
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of murder through these techniques and his story was successful thanks to the techniques

used.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado Elegant EBooks, Public

domain. Web.