The Cask Of Amontillado Analysis

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe is a short story that is both creepy while also being somewhat amusing. Poe uses many literary devices to convey his story in the best possible way. The most prominent element in his short story is tone, which is a significant part of any piece of literature. Poe is known to have a sinister, creepy tone in many of his works and “The Cask of Amontillado” is no exception. Edgar Allen Poe uses imagery, point of view, and characterization in his short story “The Cask of Amontillado” in order to express the tone appropriately as well as to fortify the theme of revenge, which assists in creating a vivid, interesting work of literature. Poe uses point of view and characterization to reinforce the theme
Poe uses strong imagery to elaborate upon the tone when he says, “The wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled. My own fancy grew warm with the Medoc. We had passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs.” This assists in the creepy tone of the short story as it describes in great detail the catacombs, filled with piles of bones throughout. It makes the reader imagine what being deep, deep inside a catacomb would be like and that thought is quite menacing. Another case of strong imagery is when Poe wrote, “Its walls had been lined with human remains piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris. Three sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner. From the fourth the bones had been thrown down, and lay promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a mound of some size.” Similarly to the previous quote, this one also provides a sense of unclean, evilness. Montresor and Fortunato are deep inside the catacombs and there are bones strung about everywhere, in piles and on the walls. The reader imagining this picture can fully grasp the tone of “The Cask of