Unity Of Effect Short Story Analysis

Poe recognized that the short story was a different kind of fiction than a novel. In fact,
Poe argues in his essay, “Importance of a Single Effect in a Prose Tale,” that a all of the elements (POV, plot, character, setting, figurative language, description, theme, dialogue, style/voice) of a short story must work together to create a “Unity of Effect” because short stories, like poems, have a lot to do in a short amount of time and space. Poe describes the “unity of effect” as deliberate choices a poet or short-story writer must make and keep in mind when composing a poem or short story in order to ensure that all of the literary elements inform each other to create both an aesthetic quality, as well as emotional impact for the piece they are

It goes on as the narrator has woken up in a dark room in the dungeon of Toledo, with little recollection as to how he got there. He begins to panic, unsure of his surroundings and the tales of Toledo he had heard frightened him to much he could hardly move to give the effect the narrator states “ I felt nothing; yet dreaded to move a step, lest I should be impeded by the walls of a tomb” (4). This quote achieved the Unity of Effect by using a consistent theme of external conflict that the narrator is going through. Another example of how Poe effectively demonstrates the wanted effect is when the narrator is describing his internal conflict as “perspiration burst from every pore and stood in cold beads upon my forehead. The agony of suspense grew at length intolerable, and I cautiously moved forward with my arms extended, and my eyes straining from their sockets in the hope of catching some faint ray of light” (4). Poe wants readers to feel the anxiety and dread that he narrator is experiencing as he uses by using first person perspective and imagery. This goes hand in hand to create the Unity of Effect and set the mood of the story.
Later he is offered water only later to find that the water is drugged after falling to the ground he uses descriptive words and imagery to create

Poe used the Unity of Effect when the narrator uses the statement “As a natural consequence its velocity was also much greater. But what mainly disturbed me was the idea that it perceptibly descended. I now observed that with what horror-it is needless to say-that its nether extremity was formed of a crescent glittering steel, about a foot in length from horn to horn; the horns upward and and under the edge evidently as keen as that of a razor.” (8). To represent the danger the character is in he uses descriptive imagery and tone to play a key role in the effect of this story. Under stress and directly under ultimate death the narrator is able to find a way to free himself by smearing food on his binds for the rats to chew through. The Unity of Effect is effectively achieved when he describes his actions “They were wild, bold, ravenous; their red eyes glaring upon me as if they waited but for motionless on my part to make me their prey.” After his success he has made his captors angry as he notices a figure on the wall. Poe uses personification when he describes this shadow as something with “Demon eyes of a wild and ghastly vivocity, glared upon me in a thousand directions where none had been visible before and gleamed with lurid lustre of a fire that I could not force my imagination to regard as unreal.” (12). By using certain words