The overall mood of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is sinister and foreboding. In order to convey this, Poe employs the narrative’s setting. “The Cask of Amontillado” is a short story about an Italian man named Montresor, who desires vengeance on his wealthy acquaintance, Fortunato, for reasons not quite clarified to the reader. The story opens at “dusk… during the supreme madness of the carnival season” (501). Dusk, the period of time just before night sets in, is a setting deliberately chosen by Poe for the story’s commencement. Just as dusk gives way to night, the already slightly ominous mood at the beginning of the story portends a dire, gloomy conclusion. This grim air does not subside as the story progresses. Rather, it
