Question

"You are not of the masons."
"Yes, yes," I said; "yes, yes."
"You? Impossible! A mason?"
"A mason," I replied.
"A sign," he said, "a sign."
"It is this," I answered, producing from beneath the folds of my roquelaire a trowel.
"You jest," he exclaimed, recoiling a few paces. "But let us proceed to the Amontillado."
"Be it so," I said, replacing the tool beneath the cloak and again offering him my arm.

Answer 1

Although the short story "The Cask of Amontillado" is not typically thought of as being humorous, it certainly has moments of dark humor. This issue concerning the masons is one of them.

When Fortunado makes the "grotesque" movement that Mostresor does not comprehend, he was showing the sign of "the brotherhood" of the Free Masons, an old secret society. So the irony is that Fortunado is referring to the secret society and Montresor pulls out...