How Does Edgar Allan Poe Use Gothic Elements

Edgar Allan Poe, perhaps the greatest gothic writer of his era, was known to inspire many dark and brooding feelings within his readers. Gothic is a writing style that often invokes fear, horror, and extreme romanticism. This style of writing often includes gloomy setting, a mysterious and often incomplete atmosphere, and odd elements of nature. Poe’s own life led him to write in a gothic style, as he was orphaned at the age of three, and never made enough money off his works to keep a home. Edgar Allan Poe used gothic elements in many of his works to better convey his ideas and create emotions in the reader, which he hoped would make them vested in the story. Poe constructs a dark and gloomy setting in “The Cask of Amontillado,” which attempts …show more content…
The famous author often used obscure details and gloomy aspects of nature to further emphasize his gothic stories. A great example of this is when Montresor exclaims, “‘The nitre!’ I said; ‘See it increases. It hangs like moss upon the vaults. We are below the river’s bed. The drops of moisture trickle among the bones...Your cough--’” The nitre that flows through the catacombs is a great example of Poe’s gothic roots in this work. Nitre is a compound that often grows on decaying concrete, clay, or other building materials. The natural elements of the rocky catacombs and the nitre river both create a dark and damp atmosphere, which frightens the reader for the safety of Fortunato, who cannot breathe under this much nitre. The nature around them also displays the age of the catacombs, as nitre only grows after long periods of time, and there is an entire river full of it underground. Keeping with the natural theme, there is a huge contrast above and below the ground. Above the ground, a gigantic and festive party is going on, but in the catacombs, it is dark, silent, and ominous. This stark contrast between the bubbly, light atmosphere above the ground and the dark, brooding tone beneath the ground worries the reader for the characters’ safety. These natural elements create fear and anxiety in the reader, which is often a common theme in Poe’s works. This …show more content…
The gothic writer used the emotions of his characters expertly, often amplifying them to unthinkable levels. This is shown when Montresor is plotting, and thinks to himself, “At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled - but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk.” In this case, the author amplifies the hatred Montresor has for Fortunato to such a level that it seems any level of vengeance could be justified. However, the reader has no idea of what Fortunato actually did to Montresor, it is just the increasing hatred of the main character that we are given by Poe to decipher. These emotions often seem unsettling to the reader, and they actually become scared of the madness that Montresor has spiraled into. The amplification of emotions is just one of the few ways that Poe shows his brilliant gothic