Edgar Alan Poe became a prominent and famous American writer due to his grim and dark short stories and poems. All his works are shrouded in atmosphere of fear and horror that is created with the help of different types of imagery. The short story The Cask of Amontillado is not an exception and pulls the reader in the fearful ambience by means of visual and auditory imagery.
Edgar Poe uses imagery in order to convey the feeling of terror, fright, inevitable and slowly approaching death. Richard Painting in his paper Relationships Between Poe’s Imagery and his View of the Universe pays attention on the visual image of submergence that prevails in the short story. He writes: “Montresor notes the manner in which he led his victim "down" to his doom.” (Painting, 21) The submergence image is created with the help of visual imagery. It is represented in the detailed description of their journey and evokes visual images with the help of descriptive verbs and epithets: “a mask of black silk”, “wine sparkled in his eyes”, “white web-work gleams”, and “eyes flashed with a fierce light”. (Poe) It allows the reader to feel himself a participant of the events. Auditory imagery appeals to the sense of hearing. Due to its use the reader can hark Fortunato’s heavy steps, the noise of “the bells upon his cap jingled as he strode”, his constant cough: “Ugh! ugh! ugh! – ugh! ugh! ugh!”, hear “a low moaning cry”, ““vibrations of the chain”, “a succession of loud and shrill screams”, “clanking”. All these immediately evoke the reader’s auditory sense and create the atmosphere of fright.
Works Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask Of Amontillado. 1st ed. José Menéndez. Web. 4 Mar. 2016.
Painting, Richard. Relationships Between Poe’s Imagery And His View Of The Universe. Drake University, School of Graduate Studies (1973): n. pag. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.
