Poe very carefully constructs the mood in “The Cask of Amontillado“. Mood is best explained as the feelings that the author evokes, and in the cask of “The Cask of Amontillado” the most commong feelings described are creepy, dark, scary, or morbid. The story begins with a series of matter of fact statements about an event which the reader discovers is utterly horrifying.
Poe begins by making Montresor’s personality clear. He is a cold, calculating individual who is highly patient and extremely intelligent. He is able to discuss this event with detachment, a signal to the reader that the narrator is a strong figure and dangerous. The first impression is that one is sitting across the table from an old friend, but by the end of the story the reader realizes that this old friend is a killer, driven with a lust for revenge.
Montresor goes on to describe his actions in precise detail. He does not simply state the necessary facts, as one would exprect from a confession, but draws out the scene carefully, as one expecting applause for the murder. The entire time the reader is wondering what exactly he has done, knowing from the beginning that Fortunato is doomed. Which details are relevant to solve the mystery and which are mere fancies of a deranged mind? Was it important to Montresor’s plot that Fortunato was dressed in motley? No, but he recounts the detail to create a perception of Fortunato, to paint both his foolishness and helplessness. The reader cannot help but feel a mixture of pity and revulsion at the sight.
As the story progresses from dark to even darker matters so do the characters and the mood of the story becomes darker still. At each turn Montresor offers Fortunato an opportunity to escape, which he eschews, and the reader begins to feel the inevitability of death. The niter and darkness in the catacombs begins to choke out thoughts of escape and the reader is resolved that Fortunato will die.
As the realization of death passes over the reader, the feeling is replaced with a new thought, the sinister nature of Montresor. As he begins to build the wall, the certainty of Fortunato’s death is made plain. There will be no escape. So why does Montresor insist on giving each last detail? Poe wishes for the reader to feel the chill and morbidity in Montresor’s tone. To simply state the facts without the details would be to cheat the reader of the experience. Could a sane man, one “who so well know[s] the nature of [Montresor's] soul,” fall into this trap or does the reader have the same potential to commit these acts as Montrsor? By creating a casual atmosphere about murder, Poe is creating a mood of horror, not at the act of murder, but at the potential acts of evil within each of us. As the characters become trapped in darkness so does the reader become wrapped in dark thoughts and realizes that though Montresor escaped the catacombs he brought with him a horror that is capable of sitting across the table in apparent innocence to casually recount with an air of normalcy.