In the story "The Cask of Amontillado", by Edgar Allen Poe, a seemingly maddened narrator, Montresor, relates how he has managed to wreak revenge on his friend, Fortunato, for some unexplained justice. The reader learns that the narrator lures Fortunato into the Montresor Burial vaults and then seals him away to die there. This plot, though relatively straight forward, leads the reader into an experience of horror, and the story's setting contributes greatly to this ever increasing atmosphere of horror, as Poe's treatments of time and place cause the reader to anticipate dread, and be absorbed in the unfolding action.

The time of day and year in which "The Cask of Amontillado" is set introduces an element of tension and foreboding to the story. Montresor informs the reader that when he first encounters Fortunato with revenge on his mind, it is about "about dusk, one evening during the...