Literature
Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his short stories and specifically the manner in which he was able to draw in the audience and totally hold their focus. Interestingly, it seems that all of his stories have a specific location that is defined by a specific space and time. This locale helps to initially draw in the reader to the world that Poe presents as his launching ground for the story. His mastery of the physical world of his tales is amazing, as is the manner in which he creates these realms. Poe examines his own methods of composition and creativity in the essay The Philosophy of Composition. Within this text, he explains the technique in which he creates the perfect physical space. Specifically, the use of effect, tone, and circumscription of space are the means by which Poe provides a physical world that captivates the reader into the story. This technique can be followed into many of his short stories and revealed within those texts. The Cask of Amontillado provides an excellent example to explore the superior means by which Poe creates a captivating physical world. He begins by setting the effect of the story, which is shown at the outset of the tale to be the revenge of Montressor.
At this point, the space is so confined to allow only for a wall and a hole in which the action takes place. Poe has now closed the physical space down to a dark and heavy crypt, where the light only glows. Further, the circumscription of space is vitally important to Poe in this story. Poe has thus focuses his narrative on the similar tone and effect and ties them together through the words of the story and the physical world begins to emerge. The basis for the effect appears to be one of desperation and hopelessness. The opening of the story quickly draws the reader into the world of melancholy by presenting a variety of descriptive images that evoke solemnity and sadness. It is this effect that helps to focus the physical world of the events that the narrator and Usher go through. This effect begins to work on the remainder of the physical world. He goes on to state that "melancholy is thus the most legitimate of poetic tones" (1575). He continues to diminish the space of the story by mentioning when the characters "passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame" (1570). The narrator feels compelled to go to the House, comfort his friend and raise his spirits. This tone is echoed throughout the story in the descriptions of the house, its atmosphere, and Usher. Already, Poe has begun to establish the perfect environment, through tone, to house the action of his story.
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Acceptance Essays
