Suspense In The Landlady And A Tell-Tale Heart

Some authors use suspense to make their readers more intrigued and to create a feeling of wanting to know more. In “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl, Billy Weaver is looking for a place to spend the night and finds himself in front of a bed and breakfast. However, the Landlady, owner of the bed and breakfast, is a murderer. However in “A Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator originally wants to kill the old man because of his eye the beat of the old man's heart is what drives the narrator over the edge. But, the police came and the guilt and the sound of his own heartbeat made the narrator confess to killing the old man. Therefore suspense is depicted in both Roald Dahl’s short story, “The Landlady” and Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “A Tell-Tale Heart” through the use of tone and character development.

In “The Landlady,” Dahl uses tone to create suspense at the very end of the story by writing, “’Temple,’ Billy said. ‘Gregory Temple. Excuse my asking, but haven’t there been any other guests here except them in the last two or three years?’ Holding her teacup high in one hand, inclining her head slightly to the left, she looked up at him out of the corners of her eyes and gave him another gentle little smile.’No, my dear,’ she said. ‘Only you.’” This shows suspense by inferring that Billy is going to die. In “A Tell-Tale Heart” Poe uses tone to create suspense by saying, “TRUE!-NERVOUS--very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am! but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses--not destroyed-- not dulled them. 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. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily--how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” This quote illustrates how Poe uses tone to create suspense because the tone of the narrators voice makes the reader want to keep