How Did Edgar Allan Poe Create Suspense

Edgar Allan Poe’s use of literary devices to show the how fear of the characters in his stories are both helpful and harmful to them. Poe shows how the fears and obsessions of the narrators in his tales either lead to their inevitable death, or their miraculous survival. Edgar Allan Poe uses many literary devices in his texts, such as symbols, ironies, and figurative language, to show the strange and distorted ways of the characters, and the repercussion of their fears and obsessions. In Poe’s stories, a literary device he uses frequently throughout his stories, are symbols.

Edgar Allan Poe creates fear and dread in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by using a lot of details and really specific on what he was doing. He went into detail on how he killed the old man. “First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.”

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, who was also associated with the American Romantic Movement. However, he was better known for his tales of mystery and macabre. He was among the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is usually considered as the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. Poe is also credited for his contribution in the evolving category of science fiction.

Edgar Allen Poe uses literary devices to express suspense and horror such as foreshadowing, mood, and tone. The author also uses key words and terms to show irony and mood. One example of irony is, “(for the shutters were close fastened through fear of robbers)” (Poe, 62). This is an example of situational irony because the old man thought the crime was going to be committed by someone outside of the home but was committed on the inside by the old man's roommate.

The Black Cat is written by Edgar Allan Poe, who has written much in the past. He was always questioned about how reliable his stories were in the past, but in this story it brings major attention to the reasons why. In the story the narrator states “…a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified - have tortured - have destroyed me.” In that quote it shows that his past life affected his actions that took place in The Black Cat.

The novel, Ruined by Paula Morris and the short story, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe contain similar and different characteristics throughout. In the book, the main character, Rebecca, is initially from the Big Apple. She is forced to move to New Orleans with a “relative” once her father traveled to China for work. Little did Rebecca know what was in store for her in the upcoming months that she would be staying in the old-fashioned city. The snobby children, with a rich history, practically rule everywhere they go in the area, from the school to the streets.

Where do you think the world would be without the major development of horror and detective genres? The one person that included majorly in the push towards evolving the growth of the horror and detective genre based stories we have come to love is from Edgar Allan Poe. Born in January 19, 1809 and later dying in October 7, 1849 Edgar Allan Poe spent most his life indulged in bad happenings such as his loved ones including his mom dying from tuberculosis. Continuing in the future he started to wright and produce short stories in the horror and detective. He furthered the investment of people’s minds into the new set of horror and detective story genres by the influence of his books, that inspired many to become great writers in the future.

Edgar was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the year of 1809. Edgar's mother perished when he was only two years old, by this time, his father had deserted him. Between the ages of 6 and 11, he was granted to go to boarding school in England. After, he turned 18, Poe issued a volume of poems and drafted in the army for 2 years. Poe's predicaments didn't leave during his childhood and continued to haunt him into his adult life.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” suspense is created through the reoccurring use of repetition which, conjures up feelings of unease in the readers. The speaker is clearly unstable. The speaker who is “nervous-very,very dreadfully nervous”(1) throughout the story repeatedly asks the reader “How, then, am I mad?”(1), then goes on to justify his actions. The reader understands that the fear in the speaker is building up, but do not know the reason why. With an unstable speaker the readers are not certain if what is being told is true or just in the speaker’s mind.

There are many speculations as to what exactly happened to Edgar Allan Poe in his death. Many people assume different things. From Henry Herring -Poe’s uncle by marriage- poisoning him, to him dying of rabies. However, it could have been much simpler that that, which also seems to be more fathomable, is the theory that is Poe died running a fever after passing out drunk.

One of Edgar Allan Poe’s most known attributes is his use of fear in many of his stories. He used words and images to instill the fright into his readers. He strung together scenarios that happen to his characters that encapsulates real fears that a reader could have. Poe would use fear in his stories in multiple ways. A story could relate around a certain fear.