What genre is "The Cask of Amontillado"?
"The Cask of Amontillado" is an example of the horror genre , of which Poe was a master. A horror story is meant to raise feelings of terror in a reader and most often does so through creating a frightening or claustrophobic setting and a rising sense of...
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suspense as the reader helplessly witnesses a terrible event.
Poe puts all of these elements into this short story. From the black mask Montresor wears to his opening statement that he is going to take revenge on Fortunato, the reader is filled with a sense of foreboding. The sense of dread rises as Fortunato follows Montresor into a dark, damp, isolated, and claustrophobic catacomb filled with piles of human bones. Throughout the story, the reader is relentlessly faced with dark imagery and perhaps even a sense of their hair standing on end.
Poe brings the story to a horrible climax by having Montresor chain up Fortunato in a crevice of the catacombs, then slowly wall him in as Fortunato screams with nobody to hear him. It is horrible, too, to think that Fortunato will slowly dehydrate and starve in this isolated, damp setting, where the niter on the walls makes it difficult to breathe.
Unlike the gothic genre, which plays on subtle psychological fears, horror has in an "in your face" quality: there is no doubt in such a story that something frightening and unthinkable will occur.
How does "The Cask of Amontillado" fit the horror genre?
In the introduction to The Penguin Book of Horror Stories, J. A. Cuddon defines the horror genre as something that "shocks or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing." This fits "The Cask of Amontillado" like a glove. When Montresor invites Fortunato down into his vaults to taste the pipe of Amontillado that he purchased, the reader has no idea what his intentions are for his victim. Even when Montresor removes the shovel from the inner pocket of his cape, the reader does not know that Montresor plans to murder his companion. So it is certainly a surprise when Montresor suddenly chains Fortunato into a recess in the wall in his family's catacombs; and it can bring up a sense of repulsion or loathing at the dishonor of the kill. This is very deceitful in that Montresor gets his victim drunk before trying anything, and he relies on deception to take advantage of Fortunato's passion for wine. In the end, the fact that this story is about a murder is not the only reason why this story fits well into the horror genre; it is also the suspense throughout most of the story and the surprise of the brutality of Montresor's final act - not to mention Fortunato's reaction (his screams of fear) as Montresor walls him in.