Identify three images that contribute to the eerie mood in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado."

Edgar Allan Poe, the master of the macabre, was gifted in
producing a sense of fear, death and looming insanity with the main characters is some
of his best short stories, including "The Black Cat," "The Tell-tale Heart," and "The
Cask of Amontillado" (which was actually based on a true story that Poe learned about
while in the military). These details were highly effective in creating a title="mood"
href="http://ai.stanford.edu/~csewell/culture/litterms.htm">mood of
eeriness.

href="http://library.thinkquest.org/23846/library/terms/index.html">Imagery
is a form of href="http://library.thinkquest.org/23846/library/terms/index.html">figurative
language, where details are provided to create a picture, or "image" in the
reader's mind. Poe's stories are particularly effective because of the
vivid imagery that he employs.

One bit
of imagery that becomes more effective as the story progresses (in the form of title="foreshadowing"
href="http://library.thinkquest.org/23846/library/terms/index.html">foreshadowing)
uses sensory details: in this case, auditory details. href="http://library.thinkquest.org/23846/library/terms/index.html">Onomatopoeia
is also present with the word "jingle." Here, the narrator speaks of Fortunato as they
move underground, heading (allegedly) for the coveted
"amontillado."

readability="6">

The gait of my friend was unsteady, and the bells
upon his cap jingled as he
strode.

This image becomes
even more eerie at the end when the following lines are
delivered:

No
answer still. I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within.
There came forth in return only a jingling of the
bells.

In this second image,
the narrator draws attention to the mineral deposits that are on the walls around them.
Notice the word "web-work," alluding to a spider luring its prey, and the description of
Fortunato's eyes that almost seem to describe a zombie, the undead or a monster of the
deep:

"The
pipe?" said he.

"It is farther on," said I; "but observe
the white web-work which gleams from these cavern
walls."

He turned toward me, and looked into my eyes with
two filmy orbs that distilled the rheum of
intoxication.

(Note
- rheum: a thin discharge of the mucous membranes, especially
during a cold.)

Another image
is found several paragraphs later (once again including the bells) as Fortunato is
recovering from a coughing fit. The narrator opens a bottle of Medoc (which is a kind of
wine). Beside the bells ringing on his cap, note the leer on Fortunato's face, coupled
with his toast to the dead around him—more
foreshadowing.

readability="15">

"Drink," I said, presenting him the
wine.

He raised it to his lips with a leer. He paused and
nodded to me familiarly, while his bells jingled.

"I
drink," he said, "to the buried that repose around
us."

If that is not creepy
enough, there is more foreshadowing, and a hidden threat, in the
narrator's response:

And I to
your long life.

In this
instance, the leer of the drunken Fortunato and his reference to the bodies buried in
the catacombs around them provides another example as to how effortlessly Poe seems to
use few words to create a sense of danger, suspense and impending
doom.