"The Cask of Amontillado" and the Senses

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Edgar Allan Poe appeals to the reader's senses by providing a complete description whereby the scene is set, which causes the reader to feel they are present in the story; this is accomplished by addressing all of the reader's senses. The author points out that, in Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado", he uses the sense of sight most thus the reader is able to see from the beginning that Fortunato is smiling at the narrator. The paper relates that Poe engages the sense of hearing when Fortunato coughs frequently throughout the story and the sense of taste as they speak of wine and the difference between a fine wine such as Amontillado and a common one such as sherry.

From the Paper:

"When they reach the narrator's home, we begin to get the strongest visuals. As he leads Fortunato into the faults, we visualize that the entrances are small. The narrator, in regards to Fortunato, "bowed him through several suites of rooms to the archway that led into the vaults. I passed down a long and winding staircase, requesting him to be cautious as he followed. We came at length to the foot of the descent, and stood together on the damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresors." In our mind we see something that resembles a series of tunnels, places depicted in some old horror movies, a place where the wealthy often buried their dead. As it states in the story, they were extensive."

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