Why Does Edgar Allan Poe's Use Of Suspense

Have you ever read or heard a story that made your heart hammer, your knees grow weak, and leave you jumping at shadows? Well, Edgar Allan Poe, a mystery and horror story writer, has written some of the most descriptive and eerie murder stories that can leave you quaking. One of his most sinister works is the “Tell-Tale Heart”. Edgar Allan Poe uses time, repetition, noises, setting, and imagery to effectively create a spooky and disturbing atmosphere in his works. These aspects creates the realistically scary feeling...but how does he apply all that in his writing?

As the narrator experiences fear, what techniques does Poe use to create suspense for the reader?

Edgar Allan Poe used fear to attract his readers into his gothic world. Poe realized that fear intrigues as well as frightens, and sew it as a perfect motif for many of his stories, particularly The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe emphasized the mysterious, desolate, and gloomy surroundings throughout the story to set up the fear that got the reader involved. Then he extended the fear to the characters in order to reveal the importance of facing and overcoming fear. Poe suggested in the story that the denial of fears can lead to madness and insanity. This has clearly shown through the weakening of Roderick Usher's mind and the resulting impact on the narrator of the story.

At the beginning of the story, the narrator creates a dark image of his journey to visit an old friend: “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn year, when the clouds hung oppressively loq in the heavens, I had been passing alone” (264). Poe creates this spooky atmosphere

Edgar Allan Poe uses irony to create suspense in "The Cask of Amontillado," to create a dark, dangerous short story. The protagonist, Montresor, plans to seek revenge on Fortunato, who insulted him, by killing him. Poe uses dramatic irony in the first paragraph by writing that Montresor is planning to kill Fortunato and get away with murdering him. The example of dramatic irony creates suspense, due to only the reader and Montresor knowing that Montresor is premeditating Fortunado's murder. Verbal irony is utilized to create suspense when Poe writes of Montresor and Fortunado making toasts, and Montresor saying, "And I to your long life" to Fortunado (Poe 347). Completely aware that he is going to murder Fortunado, yet Montresor toasts to Fortunado's

Have you ever read “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe? It is a short story about a man whose mental state deteriorates over time. The narrator loves the old man, however he has a deep hatred toward the old man’s vulture-like eye. This essay will be explaining the ways Poe keeps his readers in suspense. Edgar Allan Poe uses time, repetition, and descriptive language to set the pace, tone, and mood.

Horror and humor, two words that start with ‘h’ that could either make you cry from laughing, or cry from terror. Poe uses both humor and horror in many different ways in order to create the setting. Humor is used in many different ways, such as a friend who only keeps track of one thing that you say, for instance, the friend who keeps shouting Amontillado! Everyone knows someone who, when feeling under the weather still insists that they are feeling peachy. Poe also uses that in his story to create a relatable, joke that mostly everyone can relate to. He also creates the setting of horror with vivid pictures of different things inside your head. But right as the story has a bit of thrill he turns back to humor again to lighten up the mood.

“…but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed them-not dulled them” (Poe 303). This shows how he is so erratic that the so-called disease is making him act the way he is. He is blaming it on the disease and trying to convince the readers that he is actually not berserk. Another way the narrator creates fear is how much time he put in every night to stalk the old man. This is shown when Poe writes, “For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down” (Poe 304). This shows that he would stand there in the darkness for hour’s just listening to the sounds of the old man. Third, the narrator takes so much pride in how clean he did it all. “I then replaces the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye-not even his-could have detected any thing wrong” (Poe 305). One can interpret from this that the narrator was proud of his work and how stealthy he did the deed. Overall Poe uses the setting and the narrator throughout, making the story seem full of fear and dread. It’s shown from the thick darkness and safety of a home to the narrator taking his time stalking the old man and cleaning up the body in a cunning

The structure of a story is the backbone of the story and one of the fundamental aspect that keeps the plot going, but Poe uses the timing of the information to scare his readers. The beginning of these stories start innocently enough, but the reader soon obtains a piece of information that starts the rising action, and also sends chills down the reader's spine. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the nameless narrator begins that story by saying that he is not insane, then promptly convinces the reader that he is insane by contradictions. “The Fall of the House of Usher” starts with the nameless narrator making a house call to a childhood friend, but the reason that he even came was that his friend told him that he was suffering from a mental disease. Coupled with the beginning is the

Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809, lived a life filled with tragedy. Poe was an American writer, considered part of the Romantic Movement; he became an accomplished poet, short story writer, editor, and literary critic, and gained worldwide fame for his dark and gruesome tales of horror (Quinn). Although his writings were well received, Poe struggled financially. He was one of the earliest American writers to focus on the short story and has been credited with inventing the detective fiction genre (Quinn). He is known for great short stories like “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven.” He died in 1849 from unknown causes; some guess that he was an alcoholic, while others suggest that he may have committed suicide (Quinn).

In Poe’s stories he always has certain diction and detail, his stories are usually very gory and have murder in them they also very little dialogue which helps interest the reader and makes them want to read more. For example this quote from Black Cat shows that it has a lot of goriness, the speaker has killed his wife because she stopped him from killing their cat. From Black Cat (5) it reads, “I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot without a groan.” This quote shows that most of Poe’s stories are very gruesome and they have murder in them, it has an effect on the story that interests the reader a little bit more and makes them want to know what happens next. “Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me.” This quote from Tell-Tale Hearts (2) shows that Edgar Allen Poe doesn’t put a lot of dialogue in his stories to show what the narrator was actually thinking about at that point in time which interest the reader to read more about what is happening and the

The narrator acted calmly. “I took my visitors all over the house. I blade them search – search well. I led them, at length, to his chamber.” (Poe, 25) This quote from the story tells us that the narrator showed courage, giving the impression that he had ‘nothing’ to hide (which he did). After the police officers started to believe the narrator, the narrator started to hear a sound. It was the heartbeat of the old man. He then spoke louder, so loud so that the police officers wouldn’t be able to hear the “sound.” “The ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct- it continued and became more distinct; I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling; but it continued and gained definiteness- until, at length, I found that the noise was not within his ears.” (Poe, 26) This lets readers know that the sound of the old man’s heartbeat, the same heartbeat that he heard before he killed him, was getting louder and louder. “Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! –no, no! They heard! - They suspected! - They knew! - They were making a mockery of my horror! - this I thought, and this I think.” (Poe, 26) This means that the narrator thought that the police officers were able to hear the heartbeat and were just mocking him, so that he would turn himself in. After a while the

He has so many different mood swings in the short story. For example, in the beginning he says “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult.” (poe). He is truly being honest about his feelings towards the old man and he seems to truly care for him. However, he then goes on to say “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man”(poe). This was the first major mood change the narrator showed because he goes from loving the old man to wanting to murder him. Another example of his mood changes is on the 8th night when he goes to the old mans room and hes all happy about how scared he has the old man but once he shines the ray into the old mans eye he just becames enraged, which leads him to murdering the old man. Another one is after he kills the old man and the cops show up. He says “I smiled, --for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome.” (poe). He happily invited the cops in because he though he had nothing to fear because he got rid of all the evidence. However once he starts hallucination the old mans heart beat he becomes impatient, he says “Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men --but the noise steadily increased.” (poe). His mood goes from happily welcoming them and haveing nothing to worry about to wanting them gone as fast as

The main theme is fear, the terror a human goes through when being confined and sentenced to mental and physical torture. Poe is trying to show readers the mental torture that a person can put themself through when they think that they are going to die. Readers see the narrator becomes paranoid throughout the whole story because of what he thinks will happen to him. The narrator thinks that he is being drugged and watched because of his constant fainting and weird things happeneing to him. Readers never know if the things he was thinking were true or if he was just assuming because of his fear.

The setting presented in this story has a very dark and gloomy atmosphere which has been used as a technique to help outline the scene. It is set in the one location; a bedroom. Poe describes the room as being “black as pitch with the thick darkness,” which deepens the effect of terror. The night setting gives the text an eerie feel as it focuses on the horrors of night time. This horror creates a noticeable impact which is recognisable when the victim cried out “who’s there?” against the backdrop of frighteningly still silence. Ultimately, the way in which Poe’s story is set builds anxiety and fear in the reader.