Cask of Amontadillo

Gothic horror became a popular writing style in the late 19th century with Edgar Allan Poe being known as the “Father of Gothic Horror”. Gothic horror is a style of fiction that emphasizes mysterious, grotesque and desolate settings. The point of view is almost always in the first Person and the narrator is the protagonist. The setting, in gothic horror, usually is the most important element of the writing. The writer focuses mainly on describing the scene than the characters.

In Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado” the setting starts in the early evening at dusk, during “ the supreme madness of the carnival season”. This is significant because it explains why the two men are wearing costumes and possibly why Fortunato is drunk. Also, starting at dusk has relevance because he ends the story at midnight, showing the elapsed time of the story and includes the gothic element of darkness.

Furtunato is lured into the catacombs, which are tunnels that house the dead, by Montresors. The catacombs are dark, damp and full of nitre. The catacombs offer t

Again, the setting of this gothic tale is of importance, but the reader is not sure how much of the gothic element really exists as the story continues.

When the woman’s mental stability worsens and she starts to believe that a woman is trapped behind the wallpaper and creeps around the room. Gilman adds more gothic horror elements using the dark of night and the moonlight as the only time the woman can see the woman creeping behind the paper. Furthermore, the woman believes that the pattern on the paper does not allow the woman to escape and that it would strangle her head off like others before her leaving their heads in the pattern adding a grotesque image.

Along the way into the catacombs Poe injects Montresors royal coat of arms. He uses this to tie into his theme of seeking revenge. Montresors family coat of arms was “ A huge human foot d’or, in a field of azure; the foot crushes the serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel” (246). With all the insults cast upon his family, Motresors sees Fortunato as the serpent whose fangs are embedded in his heel.

The bedroom also has yellow wallpaper that the woman describes as the worst paper she has seen in her life, “committing every artistic sin”(451). She also describes the pattern as having “lame uncertain curves” that “suddenly commit suicide”. (451)

he mystique and desolate area needed to support the gothic horror element. They go to the “most remote end of the crypt"(247) in the "inmost recesses"(246) of the "extensive"(246) catacombs.

The lure is wine known as amontillado. Montresors f

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