Suspense In The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe

Eileen Loebner
Mynatt
English II Honors
13 January 2023
Dreadful Anticipation
Similar to his horrifying life, Edgar Allan Poe’s works evoke fear and dread in his readers. Poe terrifies readers with gloomy settings and terrifying characters that paint the picture of his unfortunate life. Readers are dragged along dreadfully anticipating what awful fiend or daunting place will represent Poe’s misfortune next. Edgar Allan Poe uses dark and mysterious settings, unknown and mentally unstable narrators, and horrifying characters and demons to create suspense and build anticipation. Poe sets the mood of anticipation through a setting shrouded in darkness and mystery, never quite revealing the narrator’s circumstances. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit

In the beginning of Poe’s “The Raven,” the narrator trusts the raven and considers the bird a friend, thinking to himself that he is “blest with seeing bird” (190). However, after the raven tells the narrator he will never be happy again, he exclaims to the bird, “‘Prophet!’ said I, ‘thing of evil–prophet still, if bird or devil!” (91). As soon as the raven proclaims the dreadful news to the narrator, he loses trust in the bird. He immediately turns against the raven and lashes out on him by referring to it as a “devil” (91). This rapid change of emotion leaves the reader at a loss for what the narrator might do next, thus creating tension. In Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Roderick Usher believes he and the narrator have buried his sister alive, and claims he heard her struggles to escape: “I hear it, and have heard it. Long–long–long–many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it.” The sounds of his sister have built tension leading up to the reveal of the mysterious sound. Poe also withholds description of characters in his works to create suspense. Poole claims, “the understanding of supernatural events was left to the imagination of the reader.” Poe does this to manipulate the reader’s mind into creating the most horrifying character possible. The reader cannot help but dread what the character in their mind will do to

The foundation of tension comes from the daunting settings of Poe’s works. He sets the mood for the story by setting the scene in dimly lit and gloomy places. Poe also adds tension by withholding information about the setting. Edgar Allan Poe’s works exemplify the importance of using setting to create