In general, Gothic tropes are most commonly associated with a draw to dark and obscure settings. In the story, the suspense is reinforced through the use of the gloomy setting in which the majority of story takes place. At the beginning, Fortunato and Montresor find themselves amongst the excitement and joy of the carnival in the “supreme madness of the carnival season” (Poe 3). The movement and contrast from the safe and festive world above, to the cold and dark catacombs below, plays a crucial role in presenting the heightening of suspense and foreshadowing of what is to come. Chunyan Sun of the Inner Mongolia University describes how Poe uses setting to engage the feelings of the reader. Through the use of words, such as “dull [and] dark”, Poe is able to “created a gloomy atmosphere, which help[s] to convey the theme of the story” and also the “tense atmosphere” (Sun 96). …show more content…
Shortly after entering the vaults below the Montresor home, with the walls “encrusted with nitre” and the damp “drops of moisture ... among the bones”, the atmosphere becomes increasingly toxic and indicative of death (Poe 4; 7). The use of symbols of death, such as the bones and human remains that are “piled to the vault overhead”, offer support to the rising suspense and sense of appending doom (Poe 8). Maria Antónia Lima of the Center for English Studies from the University of Lisbon, also argues that the Gothic tropes “often [use] the imagery of death and evil”, most commonly through “images of monsters, violated or mutant bodies, ghosts, dolls, masks, skulls, etc”, to make suspense palpable to the reader (Lima 24). Not only this, but the use of the Gothic convention of isolation, separating Fortunato and Montresor from any other living humans, works to further enhance the suspense of Montresor’s plot for