ipl-logo

Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

748 Words3 Pages

Everyone knows that feeling of suspense. Sitting on the edge of your seat not knowing what 's going to happen or when. Your heart beats and you become anxious waiting for something. It can flood you with adrenaline causing you to be extremely entertained or even frightened. Well, in the story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe does an incredible job of creating teeth chattering suspense. The narrator is a mad man who knows an old man with a cataract eye. He believes that this eye is evil, so he wants to kill the old man. Craft moves such as inner thinking, symbolism, and description are used to build suspense. The story is written in first person, but there are parts that can differentiated from that and are instead inner thinking. Near the end, the narrator is sitting with the cops while saying things not aloud and in his head rather than just directing the story. “Was it possible? They heard not!--no, no! They heard!--they suspected!--they knew!--they were making a mockery of my horror!--this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony--Anything was more tolerable than this derision!” By having thoughts like these, it is clear to see that he is becoming extremely anxious and nervous. It builds suspense by making you wonder what’s going to happen next. By the tension he is feeling a hint is dropped that really soon he will most likely confess. Next, a technique used to build suspense is symbolism. In this particularly story, the beating

Show More
Related

  • Literary Devices In Tell Tale Heart

    768 Words  | 4 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe used the literary device of setting to give a dark, threatening tone in the story by using three main elements. Time of day, mood and atmosphere, and population. All to which are very effective towards the story. Time of day affects most of the story of Tell-Tale Heart, through the type of period of time the short story is based on. If it’s based on in the day people expect things that aren’t dark, but if it’s during the night you will be expecting something dark and ominous.

    Read More

  • The Use Of Suspense In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

    107 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Suspense In The Tell-Tale Heart And The Monkeys Paw

    530 Words  | 3 Pages

    The suspense in a story (or movie) plays a big hand within the story, but what causes the suspense? “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Monkeys Paw” will be my two examples as to what causes suspense and what effect it has on the story. These two stories will show you how a cause can affect the mood in a story while reading it. The cause-and-effect in “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Monkeys Paw” cause suspense.

    Read More

  • Motifs In The Masque Of The Red Death

    951 Words  | 4 Pages

    After reading many unique stories of great author and poet of his time, Edgar Allan Poe, many may perceive his stories as disturbing, gruesome, or perplexing. Although most of his stories revolve around madness or death, several would be taken back by the fact that he was indeed a true romantic at heart. Throughout his literature, Poe frequently applies the heart motif to impact the characters, move the plot along, and/or affect the reader. The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Masque of the Red Death all are highly symbolic and utilize the heart in a similar way but different situation. To begin with, the heart motif is used in The Tell-Tale Heart.

    Read More

  • The Tell Tale Heart Suspense Essay

    674 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stories from the horror genre leave little information to the imagination. Although, why do people believe this about most stories. Well authors use the horror genre elements to surprise, excite, and give a reader many emotions while reading.

    Read More

  • How Does Poe Create Fear In The Tell Tale Heart

    1745 Words  | 7 Pages

    Poe creates the feeling of fear and dread in his story in many ways. Even though it can’t always be seen it is always there. Poe creates fear and dread in many of his stories and it is definitely a common theme for him. Edgar Allen Poe’s, “Tell Tale heart” encompasses this theme very well. For example, an old man with a vulture eye haunts the narrator in the story and he does anything he can to rid himself of it even if that means murdering the old man.

    Read More

  • The Tell Tale Heart Insanity Essay

    868 Words  | 4 Pages

    In this quote, the narrator shows how not only did he plan the murder but how he had put in the thought to plan how to conceal the body and cover up any evidence that could be used to prove that he committed the murder, further proving that this was not an impulsive action and had been planned to every last

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Techniques In The Tell Tale Heart

    434 Words  | 2 Pages

    While Edgar Allan Poe as the narrator of the The Tell-Tale Heart has the reader believe that he was indeed sane, his thoughts and actions throughout the story would prove otherwise. As the short story unfolds, we see the narrator as a man divided between his love for the old man and his obsession with the old man’s eye. The eye repeatedly becomes the narrator’s pretext for his actions, and while his delusional state caused him much aggravation, he also revealed signs of a conscience. In the first paragraph of the short story, The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe establishes an important tone that carries throughout his whole story, which is ironic.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

    940 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is always something that bothers us in life, whether it’s others or even our own conscious. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator has a difficult time following through with his cruel acts because a part of him knows it’s truly wrong. Throughout the story, his crimes bring more tension between him and the old man. Suspense is created with his every move, leaving readers hanging on the edge of their seats. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe builds suspense by using symbolism, inner thinking, and revealing information to the reader that a character doesn’t know about.

    Read More

  • Foreshadowing In The Fall Of The House Of Usher Essay

    886 Words  | 4 Pages

    Poe tries to evoke suspense in the reader's mind by using several different

    Read More

  • Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart Analysis

    765 Words  | 4 Pages

    Suspense is an integral part of storytelling. Without suspense, certain stories would not create their intended effect. Edgar Allen Poe wrote many books and poems, which were all under a gothic theme. His writings were very dark and mysterious, and they all contained suspense. Poe’s novel “The Tell-Tale Heart” and his poem “The Raven” contain suspense, which is created through point-of-view, irony, and diction.

    Read More

  • Comparing Tell-Tale Heart And The Monkey's Paw By W. Jacobs

    810 Words  | 4 Pages

    Have you ever wondered what it would like through the eyes of a killer? In each of the story’s they have examples of cause and effect, for example from the killer 's perspective he went crazy because he killed the old man. From the victim’s perspective in monkey’s paw after using this paw it costed them their son and losing their son made them depressed. The-Tell-Tale-Heart by Edgar Allan Poe and The Monkey’s Paw by W. W. Jacobs have cause and effect relationships that create suspense.

    Read More

  • Two Examples Of Suspense In The Landlady

    59 Words  | 1 Pages

    In conclusion, stories would not be very interesting without a little suspense. Without them, they would be dull and we would never be on the edge of our seats. Suspense was used very well in stories such as The Landlady which used atmosphere, the lady or the tiger which used action or the tell tale heart which used

    Read More

  • How Does Poe Create Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

    678 Words  | 3 Pages

    Suspense was profound in “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe. Throughout the entirety of the book, he left the reader with multiple questions. It is a story completely based off of not knowing exactly what will happen next. but knowing something will happen. Whether it had been in the beginning when one could have been asking themselves what makes him so crazy, or at the end when one could have been asking themselves what happened after the cops were made aware of the situation, suspense was always there.

    Read More

  • Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

    1109 Words  | 5 Pages

    There are times in life where people do commit a small mistake, or a huge crime, but what really matters is if one will listen to their conscience. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character lives with an old man who has an eye that “resembled that of a vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” The story revolves around the main character’s obsession over the eye, and how he got rid of it-- by murdering the old man. Towards the end of the story, the young man confesses to the police about his insane stunt after they searched his house. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe focused on having the reader know more than the secondary character, using description, and using a first-person narrator, to build suspense.

    Read More

More about Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

Open Document