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The Theme Of Fear In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

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Edgar Allan Poe creates an atmosphere of fear and dread in his story “The Tell-Tale Heart” through characters and word choice. The author chose an insane character to portray a fearful plotline. Despite the distorted claims the narrator makes to convince the reader, he appears to be insane: “Above all was the sense of hearing acute, I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell” (Poe 303). By reading this quote, the reader understands that this person has mental issues. No sane person in the world can hear all noises in heaven and in hell. The author uses this quote to set up for the rest of the story. By knowing that the narrator is insane, the whole story shifts into a disturbing and uneasy tale. By including

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