Zack Kunka

11/17/12
3rd Hour
The Dark, Dreary Mood
Sadness, anger, and vengeance, all of which are moods we may experience in our
everyday lives. Today, Im going to tell you how Edgar Allen Poe used mood in his stories.
Mood is a passing emotional state, some examples of which were listed above. Poe used mood in
his writing to give insight to the reader of the emotional state of the characters, as shown in his
poem The Raven and his short story The Cask of Amontillado.
In The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe, an unnamed man is trying to forget about his lost
love, Lenore. Then, a raven flies in through his window and perches itself upon a bust above his
chamber door. At first, he is fascinated by this bird because it talks and asks it to get rid of the
memories of his lost Lenore. After that, he becomes angry at this bird as all it says is
Nevermore, and realizes that his soul shall never be lifted and he will never forget about
Lenore. A quote representing some of the mood of the story is Take thy beak from out my heart,
and take thy form from off my door! (Poe 150). An explanation of the quote is that this
unnamed man is mad at the raven because he is already sad and he thinks the raven is now
insulting him, so he just wants the bird to go away. This affects the mood because he is yelling at
the bird to leave his house and this makes the mood angry.
In The Cask of Amontillado, by Edgar Allen Poe, Montressor is mad at Fortunado
because he insulted Montressor a thousand times. Then, seeking vengeance, Montressor leads

Fortunado into a wine cellar and chains him to a wall. After that, Montressor walls in Fortunado
and leaves him there to starve to death. A quote that represents the mood is The thousand
injuries of Fortunado I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed
revenge (Poe 372). The explanation of this quote is that Montressor is tired of Fortunados
insults and now Montressor is vowing the ultimate revenge towards him. This affects the mood
because Montressor is getting revenge on Fortunado and this makes the mood vengeful.
Authors use mood in their writing to show the emotions in their stories, and this is shown
in The Raven and The Cask of Amontillado. The mood of The Raven is at first sadness, then
fascination, followed by anger, and the mood of The Cask of Amontillado is awful vengeance.
My insight on the use of mood in The Raven and The Cask of Amontillado, is that mood is used
to convey the type of emotions the character is feeling. The moods of Poes stories and poems
are more on the dark and dreary side, possibly due to his difficult life. His father abandoned their
family, and his mother died shortly after that, orphaning Poe. Later in his life, Poes wife died.
These events quite possibly shaped Poes emotions and moods, which he then transferred to his
stories and poems in a most marvelous way.