The Use Of Suspense In The Tell-Tale Heart And The Monkey's Paw

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.

The Tell Tale Heart story and the monkey’s paw are both horror. The Tell Tale Heart story has three major characteristics; mystery, horror, and thriller. The monkey, paw has horror and the suspense was the supernatural events going on in the story. In these three paragraphs I will talk about the suspense, fear, and surprise in these two stories.

Suspense. It's what makes us sit on the edge of our seats at movies, or has us biting our nails as we read. It’s the backbone behind any classic horror film where the babysitter keeps getting unknown phone calls about checking the children and she asks the police to trace the call only to get a call back saying it's coming from upstairs. Suspense is used in literature to give off a feeling of uncertainty. In W.F. Harvey’s story “August Heat”, he writes about our protagonist James and how he meets a bizarre character named Mr.Atkinson who he feels is an unnatural person and feels uneasy with him. Later when he is invited to stay the night, Harvey finished the story off with James saying he will “be gone in less than an

Suspense, the state of tension, anxiety, and uncertainty, like waiting for an outcome that comes very slow. Authors usually create suspense by using story elements. In the story “The Monkeys Paw” by W.W. Jacobs, he uses story elements such as foreshadowing, conflict, and surprise ending.

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. The reader remains in anticipation of the speakers next move.

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.

What gives the reader that feeling of being on the edge of their seat? Why would he want the reader to anticipate what’s going to happen next? That is how the author expresses tension. The author does this by using literary devices. Edgar Allen Poe builds suspense in “The Black Cat” by using specific literary devices—foreshadowing, allusion, and slow pace.

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.

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.

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.

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. To conclude, in “The Tell Tale Heart”, Poe uses the technique of suspense

“Suspense combines curiosity with fear and pulls them up a rising slope,” quote by Mason Cooley summarizes the idea of how W.F. Harvey creates suspense in his short story, “August Heats.” Everyone likes a little suspense in their life so W.F. Harvey attracts his audience by using foreshadowing, “the use of hints to suggest events later in the plot,” (source 1) a reversal is involved, “a sudden change in a character’s situation from good to bad or vice versa,” (source 1) and the narrator withholds information from the reader. With these steps the author intrigues the audience to continue reading and cause them to feel frightened as they read.

You’re watching a show. The character is in a canoe floating down the river. All the sudden there is a cliff with water rushing off of it. The waters speed up and the character is getting closer to the cliff. Then the show cuts off. You anxiously start the next episode to find out what happens to the character. This is called suspense. Suspense is the feeling of being excited or anxious uncertainty about what will happen next.These three stories have suspense. The first story is “The Sound of Thunder,” by Ray Bradbury. Ekels, the main character, goes back in time to kill dinosaurs but breaks the rules and messes up current day. The second story is “Pancakes,” by Joan Bauer where a perfectionist waitress named Jill was the only person working when many people came in at the same time. In the end, Jill’s ex-boyfriend and his mom ended up helping out Jill. The last story is “The Cop and The Anthem,” by O. Henry. Soapy, the main

“I didn’t move. Instead, I took out the Beta Capsule and held the small metal cylinder in the palm of my avatar 's hand. Sorrento had tried to kill me.” (339) In this passage, Wade, the protagonist, decides that the antagonist has had enough of power and kills in the real world and OASIS. Wade then shows courage even when he should be doing different things, namely entering the third gate before he is killed. Wade shows a lot of courage throughout the story through suspense.

In “The Tell-tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, the demented, arrogant and dark tones reflect the man’s guilt and insanity that eventually leds him to admit to the crime he committed.