In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, death and revenge are the key concepts of this tale. The location causes the narrator to have a perfect ideal situation to commit a heinous crime, and throughout the story there is foreshadowing of murder through events based on revenge. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, the two main settings contribute to the story by giving it an eerie dark feeling, provide a terrifying and suspenseful mood, and cause a mysterious and emotional effect. The primary setting that Poe uses is the carnival in Italy, in modern society this pastime is a cause for celebration and enjoyment. Although, in Poe’s depiction of this event, it contributes to a melancholy and apprehensive mood exemplified in the quote, "it was about dusk” (Poe 144). This later foreshadows a thought that anything can happen and no one will notice. A feeling of fear and excitement is created, which has causes suspense waiting to see what the narrator will do to Fortunato when he leaves the carnival in the middle of the night. When Montresor described the carnival as “supreme madness”, it gives a sense that no one is in their right mind and everyone is intoxicated. With the intoxication of Fortunato, Montresor may continue his plan with no fear that he will be discovered or that it would be fouled.
Equally important to the story is the catacombs located beneath his palazzo. When Montresor and Fortunato arrive, the mood is defiantly frightening because it starts out as a dark feeling to a more horrifying emotion. This gives it a dubious tone because the reader is unaware of what Montresor is planning. The narrator was not pushy but calm “it is the victim who does all the pushing” (Reynolds 184). This creates a terrifying and scary atmosphere because Fortunato is forcing himself to his own death. The mood becomes tense when Montresor and Fortunato “passed through walls