Setting

The setting of the short story “The Premature Burial” by Edgar Allan Poe is a town in America, probably in the state of Maryland, since there is a reference to “the neighboring city of Baltimore”. The climax of the story takes place near Richmond, in Virginia, where the narrator is on a gunning expedition, “some miles down the banks of the James River”. 

The narrator lives mostly in his own mind, as his entire world revolves around his thoughts and fears. The atmosphere in the story is therefore oppressive and claustrophobic, which fits with the topic of the story – the fear of being buried alive.

There is little mention of the outside environment, which shows that the narrator is entirely self-absorbed. An exception to this occurs during his apparent burial, where every ...