In "The Cask of Amontillado", describe the setting of the catacombs and comment on the mood this creates.

The setting of this spine-chilling short story is
certainly key to the mood of horror and disbelief. It is perhaps important to give
ourselves some context as to the kind of literature that Poe wrote before answering your
question. Poe was known as a "Dark Romantic", which means he was one of a group of
authors who focussed their work on the dark side of humanity - evil, sin and the
capacity within us all to do terrible things. In this response I will focus on the
catacombs but also how they function as a psychological symbol for the state of mind of
the narrator.

Clearly, understanding Dark Romanticism
becomes useful when analysing the story. We are introduced to a narrator, who, we go on
to suspect, is unreliable, in that we begin to doubt what he professes to us. Consider
how the story begins:

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The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as
best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed
revenge.

We begin to wonder
about the accuracy of the narrator's perception when we see the trust that Fortunato
displays to Montresor - if he had indeed, "ventured upon insult", he might not have been
so quick to fall in to Montresor's trap.

It is clear that
we are seeing the narrator beneath his mask of public respectability. The setting of the
story is key in this respect too - it is set during carnaval, when characters wore masks
and fine clothing. It is perhaps ironic that Montresor chooses this time to reveal his
true inner self.

Note too, the symbolic function of the
catacombs. Consider how they are described:

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We had passed through walls of piled bones, with
casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the
catacombs.

As Montresor leads
Fortunato on into the ever-deeper depths of the labyrinthine catacombs, we as readers
are treated to a special voyage into the psychological state of Montresor - the deeper
we get, the more devilish, sadistic and horrific his thinking and actions become. It is
key that Montresor commits his heinous crime once they have penetrated the depths of the
catacombs and reached the finish - he is able to express his psychologically disturbed
state to the extreme. Yet, I wonder whether the bricking-in of Fortunato represents the
psychological repression of Montresor's evil desires and actions - we can only assume
that after chillingly sealing in Fortunato and leaving him there to die, Montresor is
able to put on his mask of respectability and operate in Venetian society once more.
Having "buried" his unacceptable psychological side he can freely partake of "normal"
society again. This, to me, is what the labyrinthine catacombs represent, contributing
of course to the mood of terror and horror.