Style or Setting on A Cask of Amontillado - Essay Example

As Susan Amper maintains, “a chilling plot weaves themes tied to character, setting, and a haunting narrative voice… The themes are bound up in the setting.” (Amper, 185) Significantly, the interplay of various themes and the setting of the story makes the major contribution to the success of the story as the finest tale by Edgar Allan Poe. In a reflective exploration of the setting of “The Cask of Amontillado”, it becomes lucid that the storywriter has been effective in creating a setting which best suits to the overall themes and mood of the story.

It is important to recognize that a great deal of critical attention has been fallen on the setting of the story, mainly because the author merely gives a vague hint about the exact location and the time of the story. In fact, the setting of the story creates a fitting environment of horror in which the narrator presents his story. Whereas the plot of the story creates an experience of horror in the readers, its setting provides an appropriate atmosphere of horror. In other words, Edgar Allan Poe unfolds the major action of the story in a setting which makes the readers feel the real horror of the plot.

“It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much.” (Poe, 78) Therefore, it becomes evident that author narrates the first part of the story in the background of the carnival season in Italy and this festive setting is contrasted to the setting of the second part of the story which is damp and gloomy catacombs. A comprehensive analysis of the contribution of the setting of “The Cask of Amontillado” to the tale as a whole confirms that the particular setting creates the emotional and mental position of the readers and the author narrates the story in this background.

Significantly, this setting contributes significantly to the mounting atmosphere of horror as the story unfolds to the readers. Due to this particular setting of the story, the readers are always made to predict and be horrified about the unfolding action in the story, which effectively creates the emotional setting of the plot in the readers’ mind. It is important to note that the second part of the story is set in the dark and gloomy catacombs and this creates an emotional background in the readers.

“On an emotional level, the catacombs contribute to the horror that the tale elicits. In addition, the catacombs by their nature and history contribute to the themes of death, resurrection, religious ritual, and religious persecution.” (Amper, 196) The setting of the catacombs has a central role in the entire action that follows, because it is in this background that the narrator builds up all the tension and horror in the story. Thus, the two main characters of the story reach this place in their way in search of the Amontillado.

Significantly, the setting is prepared at the most remote end of the deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air creates horror in the minds of the readers. “At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with