The Role Of Suspense In The Cask Of Amontillado

After Vanessa crawls across the lawn to the Martinez’s she is left to lay there and hope one of them comes to the back door. Meanwhile, inside the house, Mr. and Mrs. Martinez are happily chatting away oblivious to Vanessa’s pleas for help. The blissfulness of the Martinizes contrasts the urgency and pain of Vanessa and leaves the reader at the edge of their seat wondering if Vanessa will survive. Another example of building suspense with juxtaposition comes from a scene that happens just a few moments earlier. While Vanessa is fighting to stay awake while inching her way towards her only hope of survival. While Vanessa’s life is hanging in the balance the sky behind her is becoming riled up. As the story puts it, “Claps of thunder pealed in the nearby distance, followed shortly by bright streaks of lightning, penetrating the dark, ominous sky.” This uses the contrasting imagery of both light and dark to keep the reader in a state of suspense and helps the mood of the story along the

In both stories a character had to switch places with something that they didn’t believe in or that they thought was not

The night is crisp and black as the moon lets off an eerie glow, leaves rustle and fall somewhere in the distance. A silhouette dwarfs the blackberry bush in the corner as one’s footsteps refrain, they move closer; you run. Suspense is a state of tension and anxiety which was used in the sentence above and is common in books and short stories. In the short story “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W Jacobs suspense is created in a variety of ways. Jacobs demonstrates this by using foreshadowing, conflict and surprise endings.

By using descriptive words and phrases to help us imagine the characters and setting the readers are drawn further into the suspense. Beginning with the descriptions of the carnival, usually a joyous time, it is not so joyous but mostly dark with the vision of “[dusk] one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival

How suspense is built up in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson

"The Cask of Amontillado" is one of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest stories. In this story Poe introduces two central characters and unfolds a tale of horror and perversion. Montresor, the narrator, and Fortunato, one of Montresor's friends, are doomed to the fate of their actions and will pay the price for their pride and jealousy. One pays the price with his life and the other pays the price with living with regret for the rest of his life. Poe uses mystery, irony, and imagery to create a horrifying, deceptive, and perverse story.

Uncertainty is used in the "The Cask Of Amontillado" to further the suspenseful nature and to darken the mood of the story. When Fortunado follows Montresor to the crypt, the suspense is built and audience is forced to sit in torment waiting to see if poor Fortunato will escape, or fall victim to his conspirator. "The nitre!" I said: "see, it increases. It hangs like moss upon the vaults. We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among the bones. Come, we will go back ere it is too late. Your cough—" This excerpt adds to the uncertainty of the story as it provides Fortunato an escape. The reader may hope that Fortunato will take the offer and return safely to the surface.

The " Cask of Amontillado" is a story about revenge. To display revenge in this story, Poe uses mood and suspense to display that revenge can lead to negative intentions. Mood is a feeling that is conveyed to the reader through literary work. Suspense is a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. In the “Cask of Amontillado” Poe uses mood and suspense to display that revenge can make you lose your humanity.

specific sensory details and descriptions to produce a mood that is both chilling and horrifying. Poe describes the eerie surroundings in a cynical and mournful way. To create this chilling mood, Poe writes, “ The earliest indication I had of this was a low moaning cry from the depth of the recess. It was was not the cry of a drunken man. There was a long and obstinate silence.” (Page 63.) From this quote, the reader feels frightened, because there is a noise and they don’t know what it is. Another way the author created a chilling mood was by writing “As I said these words I busied myself among the pile of bones of which I have before spoken. Throwing them aside, I soon uncovered a quantity

In the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe tell of a man going to great extents to get revenge. Montresor holds a grudge against Fortunato because he has insulted him several times causing pain inside him to form and builds up day by day. Fortunato has a talent of tasting wine but needs to find a way not to express his feelings that much. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe creates events in which he builds suspense. The author keeps his readers on their feel by having a surprise at every corner. Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates in “The Cask of Amontillado” how he uses the conflict to show the build of suspense, change of mood of the reader, develop the theme, reflect a change in the character/characters.

Edgar Allen Poe has wrote many great stories and he does a good job making them feel suspenseful. In class we have read two stories both of which this feeling is portrayed. The first is “Cask of Amontillado” and the second is “Masque of the Red Death.” The one I will be writing about is “Cask of Amontillado”, this is set during carnival which is a giant part where everyone is dressed up and just having the time of their lives. They are not necessarily at carnival but are underground in the catacombs where all the dead bodies were put.

     The author wrote this story as a literary genius. There is an extreme level of suspense that leaves you wanting

“The Cask of Amontillado” is narrated in the first person which is essential to creating the authentic aspect of the story. Montresor who is a sensible killer is the narrator, this grants the narration of the story from his own point of view. The reader obtains an exclusive, alarming glance into the peaceful composure of Montresor’s mind. The reader can certainly detect, examine, and identify how Montresor feels and thinks. Readers normally do not get this particular view in other literature. One of the main reasons that the narration approach is so critical to the tone of narrative, is because it allows the audience to grow into a more personal conversant with the logic and design of the main character. Convinced ironies are granted to the audience due to the reader knowing somewhat of the ending of narrative from the opening. In addition, if the narrative was told in a contrasting mindset other than that of Montresor, I think that the narrative would not be as intellectual and psychologically compelling.

In “The Cask of Amontillado” is about a man names Montresor who wants to get revenge with impunity. He wants to get away with what he is doing so he tricks the man to come with him and even though the reader thinks they know what will happen Fortunato, the man who is going to be killed, does not. Poe puts multiple insightful parts to create a creepy feeling to the story and to give the reader hints as to what is going to happen without saying it. In “The Cask of Amontillado” Edger Allan Poe makes the mood foreboding by using dialogue and sensory details.

In “The Landlady” the most important part in creating a suspenseful story is the tone and mood. Dhal emphases the use of tone and mood by introducing the landlady in an uncanny fashion, “. . .it must have been at once because he hadn’t even had time to take his finger from the bell-button – the door swung open and a woman was standing there” (2). The suspicious feeling the reader gets from reading the sentence makes them see possible outcomes of what happens next. The many predictions, based on the reader’s feelings, makes them feel more eager because they are uncertain what the landlady will do to Billy. “He waited for her to say something else, but she seemed to have lapsed into another of her silences” (4). The silences create more tension