Edgar Allan Poe, renowned master of the horror story, conceives an utterly despicable tale of dismay entitled “The Cask of Amontillado”. A mentally gruesome account of revenge, the story concerns only two sketchy characters with indefinite past. Definition of character is irrelevant to Poe’s literary purpose of quickly sharing one man’s hideous design of premeditated murder and his carrying out thereof. Poe’s lyrical genius accomplishes this purpose through the use of specific …showed first 75 words of 980 total…

…showed last 75 words of 980 total…is Fortunato’s clown outfit, which symbolizes his “playing the fool”. Needless to say, both Irony and Symbol were influential in creating a carefully crafted tale of premeditated murder. Edgar Allan Poe molds his bone-chilling short story, “The Cask of Amontillado”, by using literary elements such as Tone and Style, Theme and Sub-theme, Symbol and Irony. With out these elements readers could not appreciate Poe’s ingenious efforts as the master of the short story.