How Does Poe Create Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

Do you like stories with a creepy vibe and tons of suspense? The Tell Tale Heart has a lot of both. The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe is about a mentally unstable man who despises an old man’s vulture like eye. In fact, he hates it so much, he decides to go into his home at midnight every night for a week and watches him as he sleeps. Eventually, the man decides to murder the old guy when he wakes him up in the middle of the eighth night. Suspense is something the author of a story can use to keep the story interesting and exciting. Poe uses suspense to keep the reader interested in the story and to keep them reading on.
In the story The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe describes the anxiety and fear of the characters to create

An example is that the narrator says, “It grew quicker and quicker, louder and louder every instant!” (Poe 92). The noise was the heart of the old man. This creates suspense by telling the reader the old man is getting scared because he knows there is a intruder, and it keeps the reader reading to to find out what happens next. Another example of repetition is, “It grew louder - louder - louder!” (Poe 94). Because the narrator has some sort of disease the sharpens his senses, he can hear the old man’s heart. This example creates suspense because you can clearly tell the narrator is crazy, because he can hear the beating of his heart, and it is constantly getting louder and louder. The reader wants to continue on, to see what happens, when the noise takes the narrator to his breaking point. The final example of repetition is, “I moved it slowly - very, very slowly.” (Poe 90). The narrator is opening the latch to the old man’s home, and he is bringing through the shut lantern. This creates suspense by describing how careful the narrator is coming into the old man’s home. The reader wants to find out if he eventually wakes up the old man by making a