preview

Figurative Language In The Cask Of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe

Decent Essays

Edgar Allan Poe was a masterful writer. His specialty in writing was leaving his readers with a creepy unsettled feeling. The Cask of Amontillado is one of his most famous horror short stories. The mood of The Cask of Amontillado is dark because of Poe’s brilliant use of oppressive imagery, deceptive dialogue, and vivid figurative language.

The mood of The Cask of Amontillado is dark because of Poe’s brilliant use of oppressive imagery. His use of explicit sensory details draw the reader in almost as if they were the main character. Poe writes, “ At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. It’s walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead.” Poe describes the vaults as being piled with human remains. Reading this, imagining the stench of human remains would make you want to run away or get out of the vaults. However, Poe writes words such as crypt or less spacious to describe the vault. This gives the reader a feeling of being trapped or suppressed and unable to escape. This dark description of the vaults is a perfect setting for Montresor’s deadly plan of revenge to take place.

The mood of The Cask of Amontillado is dark because of Poe’s use of deceptive dialogue. Montresor’s deceitful language combined with Fortunato’s clueless drunkenness provides a perfect opportunity for the reader to understand or have an idea of what is to come. Poe writes, “ I drink,” Fortunato said, “ to the buried that repose around us.” “

Get Access