The setting is in a dark catacomb during the festive Carnival. The setting is described when the author states, “The vaults are insufferably damp. They are encrusted with nitre” (Poe “Cask” 346) and deeper into the vault, the characters, “passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs” (Poe “Cask” 349). This setting adds to the mood because it is dark and gloomy. If the story was set brighter room and the bones were swapped with butterflies, the inevitable murder will seem out of place in the story and the dark mood would not be set. It also includes a descent which is a common characteristic of Gothic literature, which adds to the suspense the reader feels when the setting is described. The bones and ominous implication of death foreshadow Fortunato’s fate and make the reader feel the suspense of the moment, hence contributing to the mood.
