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In what year does "The Cask of Amontillado" take place?
Quick answer:
The exact year of "The Cask of Amontillado" is not specified, but it is likely set in the 18th century. Clues such as Montresor's clothing, particularly the roquelaire cloak, suggest this period. Some analyses propose specific years like 1796 or 1787-1788 based on historical context and family tracing. The story's setting in Italy and its gothic elements aim to create an exotic atmosphere for the original 19th-century audience.
As noted above, "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe was originally published in 1846. Although Poe himself was a nineteenth-century American writer, he deliberately chose an exotic setting (Italy) remote from his reader's lives in period and place. This use of exotic locale is typical of the "gothic" genre. A story that might seem overwrought or wildly improbable in a domestic setting becomes more credible when it describes a culture alien to its readers.
We are not given an actual date or even a time period for the story, but we do have the narrator describe himself as wearing a roquelaire (the more modern spelling is roquelaure), a type of long cloak that was worn in the 18th century. Since this is not a realistic story, it doesn't need a precise date, but both the language and atmosphere suggest that this is a work of historical fiction
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fiction, set in a period before its original audience was born, for the purpose of making the story more exotic.
Thus the most precise answer we can arrive at is that it is set in the 18th century in the area that was to become Italy (the process of the unification of Italy began with the 1815 Congress of Vienna, after the period in which this story was set.)
"The Cask of Amontillado" is a short story, written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in the Godey's Lady's Book, 33, (November, 1846) 216-218. It is a monthly magazine from Philadelphia that published poems and stories by some of the best American writers of the nineteenth century, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The story next appeared in the collection Poe's Works, edited by Rufus W. Griswold, Poe's literary executor, in 1850. By the time Poe wrote this story, he was already nationally known author. Like Poe's other stories, it has remained in print continuously since 1850."
We aren't given the exact year, but we can guess the time period is the eighteenth or nineteenth century based on clues in the story. Montresor's cape, vocabulary, and the torches would seem to indicate one of these centuries. Those who have traced the Montresor family name and the history of Mardi Gras have placed the murder in 1796, according to one person, and in 1787 or 1788 by another expert.
The text of "The Cask of Amontillado" does not specify the year in which the story is set. It was published in Godey's Lady's Book in 1846. Montresor, the fictitious narrator, states that Fortunato's bones have not been disturbed for fifty years, so one might guess that the event occurred in the 1790's. Montresor twice mentions that he was wearing a roquelaire, which was a knee-length cloak named after the Duc de Roquelaure, a French nobleman and Marshal of France who died in 1738. Fortunato's murder apparently occurred sometime in the 18th century. The roquelaire was a practical garment. It would have been a useful type of cloak for Montresor to have been wearing, since he could have continued to wear it unencumbered while he was building his stone wall.
Speculative Analysis
It seems most likely that Poe intended the reader to assume that the story was originally written as a letter to a confidant, or confidante, whom Montresor addresses as "You, who so well know the nature of my soul." This letter had been discovered among the papers of the recipient and somehow found its way into the hands of an editor named Edgar Allan Poe, who translated it into English from French or Italian and published it in an American magazine.
Some readers have suggested that the narrative represents a confession to a priest by a man who would have been in his eighties or nineties and possibly on his deathbed. The problem with that interpretation is that there is no indication of a second person being present. A priest or any other interlocutor would be expected to make interjections and ask questions, if it was Poe's intention to present the story as a viva voce confession.