How Does Poe Create Fear In The Tell Tale Heart

From the initial start of the story, Edgar Allan Poe creates an emotional feeling of fear and dread in the heart of the reader(s). Through his use of word choice and the amount of details he put into this short story it is to no surprise that he is one of the most well known authors of his time. For example in his story The Tell-Tale Heart he conceives such fear and dread through the narrator and the old man characters. From the very beginning of the short story Poe portrays the narrator to be creepy and mad, as if he possess some disease. If you ever read this story you will find a quote that reads “Every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it- oh so gently” (Poe 303). That shows how obsessive and creepy the narrator is in the

Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded- with what caution- with what foresight- with what dissimulating I went to work” (Poe 303). The main character believes mad men are incapable of using their brain. Mad men don’t think plans through so there fore he believes he isn’t mad. Another dreadful characteristic about this character would be the pride he felt when he concluded the murdering of the old man. On page 305 the narrator says “If you still think me mad, you will think no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body” (Poe 305). It would seem, as the character wanted to show is accomplishment of pulling off the ultimate crime. Through one character Poe was able to create such fear and dread. However, he also added upon even more fear through the old man character. Edgar did this by adding suspense through the old man. In the story it seems that the narrator wanted to kill him all because of the feeling he got form the Old mans eye. “One of his eyes resembled that of a culture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it” (Poe 303). Of course the old man is unaware that he will be killed prior to his