Language Edgar Allan Poe uses to Create Atmosphere and Suspense

Poe strips the story of a river of detail as a way to intensify the murderer’s obsession with the old man’s eye, the heartbeat, and his own claim to sanity. Allan Edgar Poe, wrote a strong story, with an unusual point of view. Following, the criminal in his long way down to madness, and his resistance towards the truth. He’s the one with a problem, not the eye. But the reader is supposed to be convince at the end of his speech that he’s not mad, but they finally, think he isn’t “just nervous” as he says, but mad.

Tell Tale Heart is a short horror story by E.A. Poe that is told from the first person perspective and describes the murder of an old man. The main character plots the crime because he (supposing the narrator is male) is irritated by the old man’s “evil eye”. The narrator kills the old man in his sleep, dismembers the body and hides the corpse parts under the floorboards. The main character is not suspected until he confesses the murder to the police believing everyone can hear the beating of the dead man’s heart from under the floor.

The narrator murdered the old man because of his pale blue eye. He late explains the rationale behind his actions and tries to convince the reader that he killed him because he could not stand the sight of the man’s evil eye staring at him. The theme of insanity is the most important theme in The Tell Tale Heart short story. In the beginning of the story, Poe writes, “How, then, am I mad? Hearken!

The driver hits the hitchhiker with a krooklok in the face, and then throws him out onto the road. ‘Education for leisure’ is a chilling poem; I chose this because it had a leading storyline which leads the audience to a point of suspense where he kills someone. Education for leisure is about a person who has a passion to kill, and the endless desire to play God. The third poem I chose was ‘The man he killed’ which is about a man who has killed an enemy of war in battle and throughout the poem is trying to convince himself of why he did it. I chose ‘The man he killed’ because it describes the emotions of the killer in detail and you as the reader are able to build a relationship and at the end of the poem you feel somewhat sorry for the killer.

Through Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” the readers are able to understand the process and thought behind the narrator motives in wanting to murder the old man. Poe incorporates numerous language devices to terrify the readers of ‘what is out there’ by portraying the narrator being terribly anxious and overwhelmed which symbolises many individuals that live in today’s society. This therefore provides the readers with a sense of fear within them as they may question whom they can trust as any individual can contain the urge to commit murder when placed under pressure or faces with a fear.

The word itself, ‘true,’ is also important because the narrator is replying to a question that the reader has supposedly asked before the story has even begun. This simple technique makes the reader want to read on, if only to find out what the question was. One of the first things the narrator says is ‘but why will you say I’m mad?’ It is an accusation that the reader is condemning him as mad. Of course Poe then goes on to prove that the narrator is mad through his feigned innocence: the more the narrato... ... middle of paper ... ...ell- Tale Heart’ as well. The narrator believes that he can hear anything, and takes pride in this, almost as though it was a gift.

In this case, Poe lets the reader know right away and throughout the story, that the probable outcome, will be Montresor getting revenge on Fortunato. 2)How readable and interesting is the style? Poe's style is interesting, but somewhat difficult to read in the beginning. At the start of the story, Poe develops the plot of the story in a difficult manner. For example, Poe writes, "It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong."

In the process of defending his sanity plea, the narrator has to confess about committing the crime. The confession in itself is self destructive if indeed he was a criminal who wanted to distance himself from the murder. Overall, Poe ‘s use of a subjective narrator, mysterious characters, and intricate plot heightens the tension of the tale, which makes the story a masterpiece of human psychological state that evokes empathy for the mad narrator. As the story progresses the sanity of the narrator becomes questionable. However, one cannot fail to recognize the characteristic unreliability of a first person narrator.

Although, these tragic events helped Poe to become one of the most well known American Poets of the 19th century (Giammarco 6). Poe exemplifies terror in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by indicating what humanity is capable of doing in order to conquer their fears. This is conveyed through the narrator’s actions and tone when expressing his sanity although confesses to murder by being horrified of an old man’s vulture eye and wanting to permanently shut it. Poe’s vivid and rhetoric language portrayed allows his readers to become aware of what is out there by allowing them to grasp the narrator’s thoughts and mindset. This is revealed through the device of an ecphonesis, as it provides emotional and exclamatory phases to show the narrators persona of having a psychological illness, mood shifts and lack of insight.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Telltale Heart” the narrator illustrates his insanity through obsession and murder. The narrator’s only motive for killing the old man was his eye. As quoted in the text, “Whenever it (the old man’s eye) fell upon me, my blood ran cold”, this indicates that the narrator ...