Dampness of the Catacomb or Darkness of the Soul?

The very first line of the story reveals the theme that will be executed – “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” The actual injuries and insults are never revealed, nor is the time frame from which the events occurred to when the revenge was carried out. It could have possibly been quite some time between the events for the reader is told that “at length I would be avenged:…but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not o

nly punish but punish with impunity.”(173) He devised a plan that would not be executed swiftly or carelessly. All the while, carefully planning the demise of his adversary, Fortunato, his vengeful spirit grew stronger.

The feeling of darkness, dread, and disaster are felt through the depiction of the vaults where the illusive Amontillado is supposedly stored. The two descend down a long, damp, winding staircase. They pass through “long walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs”(175) - underground places of burial, consisting of passages and small rooms with excavations in their sides for tombs. They “passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again” (176) before arriving at a foul-smelling crypt. One would think that Fortunato might question why there was an “interior crypt” that “seemed to have been constructed for no especial use within itself.” (176) He might have questioned it if he’d been in a

Some topics in this essay:
Cask Amontillado”, Allan Poe, feeling darkness, darkness dread, feeling darkness dread,