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. The six kinds of horror genre elements are suspense, foreshadowing, setting, source of horror and type of horror. For instance, let’s look over Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart and see how he uses an internal source of horror and suspense in his writing. Without, further ado let’s analyze Edgar Allan Poe’s writing The Tell-Tale Heart. The first horror genre element I noticed in his writing was an internal source of horror. An internal source of horror is when a character's horror is mental. …show more content…
Suspense is a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. For instance, page 173 states, “And this I did for seven long nights- every night just at midnight- but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me; but his Evil Eye”. Page 173 has many examples of suspense but, the main one was that he wouldn’t kill the man for seven days. He was safe because, his eye was closed but, this then makes the reader fear for the man because, what if one of his eyes opened. This is also shown on page 173 and it states, “ I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man sprang up in the bed, crying out-“Who’s there?”. This creates suspense because, the reader knows that the narrator has already came into the old man’s room for seven days before this. Although, each one of those nights the man was asleep so the eye was closed, but now he’s and his eye is open and the narrator would only kill him if his vulture eye was open. This then causes the reader to feel anxious and many other emotions that suspense would give you. So, I can conclude that both of these elements were included in The Tell-Tale
Horror stories generally and naturally scare people, but that doesn’t mean that the story is that frightening. The stories get into people’s nerves and they start thinking deep inside about what can happen, but not necessarily about the story, they start thinking about themselves and their live. Sometimes the horror stories are not scary like monstrous and ghosts, they are realistic and several people can identify themselves with the story. Writers uses smart ways to keep readers reading. It needs a good and smart critical thinking to write down the facts and certain events.
He also went into detail on how it took him one hour to get his head into the old man's door so he can watch him sleep. The scene also takes place at night to make it seem a little bit creepier. Another reason that he creates fear is that the narrator was very creepy. The way that he described the murder into detail and how he was planning the murder before. When he knew that the old man was really nice and he loved the old man, but he still had to kill him because of the way
Anxiety, a feeling you get when you are nervous or perhaps scared, maybe even petrified. Living in a world that has the most terrifying problematic situations can be quite the ride when acknowledging the horror genre. It is rather monotonous when discovering the author’s basic techniques, but still it continues to intimidate our senses and bring us a lack of recognizing the effortless structure. The setting, plot, characters and other methods allow a story to build up the tension and exhilaration while having many specific details to clearly make the horror class come to life. Two stories, “The Tell Tale Heart” By Edgar Allen Poe and “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs are texts that bring a huge amount of suspense, excitement, and a feel of horrifying pleasure, but why?
A horror story is a story that provides a gruesome scary story with scary imaginary and fearful settings. However, is that always the case when reading a horror story or poem? The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is a horror poem, despite not being like one. We know it as gothic horror. The characteristics used in gothic horror are its characters, setting, theme, and wordplay, as well as being a story that readers can relate to.
Do you know how to define a horror story? Some people define it as a story with monsters, others define it as a scary story. In the story “What is the Horror Genre”, Sharon A. Russell decides the best way to define the horror genre is using the structure (suspense and setting), organization (parallel worlds, supernatural, and “ the fantastic”), the source of the horror, and one of two themes (good vs. evil or forbidden knowledge). Sharon A. Russell also explains three different ways suspense creates horror. Those three types are: suspense that is intensified by knowing it’s a horror story, the control of when and where we get our knowledge creates suspense, and our advanced knowledge creates suspense since we can anticipate future events.
Fear plays a big part in everyone’s lives. While not everyone will admit it, everyone is scared of something. There is a lot that isn’t known about the world and everything in it. For some this is a tool that can be used to develop horror in literature as well as many other things. “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
Horror, by definition, is a fictional novel in which the writers intention is to scare, disgust, or frighten the reader. Common elements of horror include paranormality, mystery, dread, fear, surprise, etc. Horror stories could have a good development, or sudden terror and fear. In a horror novel with long development, dread is an essential component. As events build up, dread builds up, making the reader anxious for the next action.
Dracula, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all focus on people fighting against their primal sides, and it is this struggle that causes horror to rear its ugly head and work its way through the mind. Horror novels are chilling because they force the reader to look at the savagery that lurks within their own
Although other genres can keep you captivated too, none of them have the capability to give you nightmares in the way a horror book does. Another difference contrasting scary books from other books is that horror novels oftentimes have major events happening in them frequently throughout the book as well, whereas other books have few major events and just continuous storylines. For example, although not the case in either Hell House or Haunting of Hill House, in many horror books, people die many times throughout the novel. In other types of novels though, usually, if a death occurs, it is only one death, which the plot then centers around, whereas in horror the novel does not center around the major events like
From The Tell Tale Heart “ Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man” Pg. 89. This Is Suspense Because it makes you feel like he’s insane. He loved the old man and he’s trying to kill him.
Here we will guide you through to writing a good horror story. First of all, you need to select your target readers; whether they are kids, grownups or old aged. This is very important, as each age group has its own level of interest. Selection of characters, plot, start and ending of our story will depend upon our target readers. It is also very important that before you start writing such type of stories you should read some of the famous writers of the same type.
As a student, I am exposed to many different genres in literature including comedy, drama, horror, non-fiction, realistic fiction, romance, satire and tragedy. The horror genre is one of the most popular genres there is in both literature and film. Even though not everyone is fond of this genre, it has a lot of fans that would love to read a horror book or watch a horror movie anytime. I personally am not the biggest fan of this genre, since I do not enjoy getting myself frightened or scared, which are both something horror books or films make you feel. Horror in literature has an extensive and interesting history.
According to the narrator their look (the eyes) sent chills down their spine, so they decided to kill the old man to get rid of the evil eyes. For seven nights at exactly midnight, they watched the old man sleep,
Edgar Allen Poe is the man of horror, he gave the term its meaning in his stories and poems, even though horror isn't the only important thing in his works. Everything an actor writes has a point, Poe’s more than most, there are things most don't see in the setting, in the title, or in the themes that are important and can tell a part of the story that most overlook. The title can hint, or even tell, what the story or poem is about, such as in the Tell-Tale Heart. The background can tell the reader something that isn't obvious without actually looking at the story, such as in A Dream Within a Dream. Themes are one of the most overlooked parts of a story or poem, as most people take a story or poem at face value without actually trying to understand
To begin, Horror fiction can keep the reader on the edge of their seat, contemplating what is going to happen next. Through the eyes of the reader, suspense can often lead them to indulging themselves into the novel