Poe sets this story in one of the most deathly, Gothic locations ever: literally, a giant tomb full of dead bodies in various states of decomposition. It is terrible to think that someone we know could be smiling at us, acting as if everything were typical and yet that they could be planning a horrible, chilling death for us at the same time.įurther, Dark Romantic and Gothic Literature also often takes death as their subject matter.

In other words, he’s been plotting the death of his nemesis, Fortunato, all the while smiling in the man’s face. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation. It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. For example, Montresor says, early on in the story, Montresor, the narrator, certainly inspires some of these in us. Dark Romantic writers focus on “darker” emotions, like horror, terror, or guilt. Many Romantic writers, then, attempt to both convey and elicit such emotion, prompting their readers to feel strongly. Romantics privileged emotion over logic, believing that, since we do not need to be taught to feel intense emotion, it is more fundamental to human experience than learned things.

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