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Importance of setting in literature
The features of horror
Setting in literature and why its important
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Recommended: Importance of setting in literature
What is the total effect of a story? The total effect of a story is the specific response an author expects to get from his/her readers. In
"The Tell-Tale Heart," by Edgar Allen Poe, is complete and total horror.
The setting, plot, character and even point of view contribute to this total effect of horror.
The setting contributes to this total effect in several different ways. All of the shudders in the house were closed, so no one could see anything from the outside in or the inside out. This was scary because no one ever knew what went on in that house except the old man with the googily eye and the murderer. The house was old and creaky, and, during the midnight hours, was pitch black. This creaky old house is a classic for horror stories and films, so it definitely adds to the total effect.
The plot also gives that same feeling of horror. The way the murderer watched the old man night after night, for hours at a time. You got the total effect of horror when he flipped the bed onto the old man, and then chopped him into little tiny pieces and hid him the floorboards.
Then the police came to see about a scream that was reported earlier. The man led them through the house, claiming that the old man was out of town for a while. He finally sat down in the exact spot where the old man had been buried under the floorboards. What eventually made the man confess to what he had done when he imagined that he heard the old man's heart beating from under the floorboards. It got louder and louder until finally he thought they(the officers)were just driving him insane and they heard the heart to and they must have heard it until he just jumped up, ripped off the floorboards and said "I did it, I killed him," pointing at the pieces of the man.
Characterization is the biggest part of the total effect of horror.
The man seemed normal enough, except for the fact that the old man's
"vulture eye" made a little crazy. He was very normal, until the "eye" drove him to stalking the man while he was asleep, and then finally killed him. At the beginning of the story, or the end, whichever you would like to call it, it was the beginning, and the end, he kept saying "I'M NOT
MAD," it was sort of, well, a psycho thing to say after chopping someone into little pieces and hiding them in the floorboards, that kind of told
That very night an old man knocked on the door of the silver smith’s house.
In Edgar Allan Poe’s works, there are many similarities between them and his life. There are plenty similarities to find when only focusing on two of his stories, The Tell Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado. When paying close attention, it is easy to notice the similarities and differences between Poe‘s life and his stories..
After the old man is dead and under the floorboards the police arrive, and the narrator remains calm and his "manor had convinced them.?Villains!" "Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the planks! -- Here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous heart!" The narrator of "The Tell Tale Heart" shows that he is unreliable. Concluding the questioning by the police, the narrator had a sudden fear and assumed that the policemen have heard the old man?s heart beat. Not only the narrator could hear the old man?s heart beating, but it is assumed (from the audience perspective) that the police could hear the narrator?s heart beating. The narrator listening to the old man?s heart beat is a replacement of his own consciousness that brought out the guiltiness for murdering the old man.
Because of his displeasing appearance, he is abhorred by society and forced to live. away from it, secluded in forests and so on. Finding the door open I entered the. An old man sat in it, near a fire, over which he was preparing his breakfast for the day. He turned on hearing a noise and perceived me, shrieked loudly, and quitting the hut ran across the fields."'.
...ng up the pebble road so they went outside to see who or what was coming to the plantation. When they went outside no one or thing was there one of the office workers there at the plantation said that they heard something so they went to see what it was and they saw a group of rocking chairs rocking all at the same time. Another one of the workers there said that she saw multiple things move across the desk tops. One of the couple tour guides there was giving a tour when suddenly a candle stick flew across the room. Another one of the staff workers there reported hearing someone crying inside of the mansion. A staff worker Mitchell borne was working alone one night inside of the mansion when he felt someone touching his arm. One of the tour guides was walking around when they did not have a tour and saw a figure sitting upright in one of the beds. ("Ghosts tales”).
Afterward, he bade the police to sit down, and he brought a chair and sat upon "the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim." The officers were so convinced that there was nothing to be discovered in the apartment that could account for the shrieks that they sat around chatting idly. Then suddenly a noise began within the narrator's ears. He grew agitated and spoke with a heightened voice. The sound increased; it was "a low, dull quick sound." We should note that the words used here to describe the beating of the heart are the exact words used only moments earlier to describe the murder of the old man. (Clift
All spring and summer the townsfolk spoke about the three bodies that had been found, mangled and slashed. Now, had the three men headed the warning and stayed away from the old man’s house they would still be alive. Instead they were tempted by the greed in their hearts for the money the terrible old man was said to have possession of. This drove them to enter through his gate and knock on the door. They believed that because he was an old man, he would be feeble and week, making him an easy target for
... he brought it back with his great emphasis and repetition of certain words. For example, he repeatedly imitated the clicking sounds that he experienced. This reenactment drew the attention of the audience and placed the audience in the hotel room that he was sleeping in, therefore made the story scarier. Also, the storyteller narrated in the first person. Because his personal experience was incorporated into the story, it made the story seem closer to the audience.
The base of human nature is to find the limit of what is socially and morally acceptable. When this line in the sand of what is acceptable and what is not is known a person can do one of three things: accept the line as it is, challenge the validity of the line, or understand why the line is there yet still think of a way to cross the line without punishment. The power of human nature to destroy stems from the last of these but only in certain cases. If this was a passing thought, then it isn 't necessarily destructive. On the other hand, when obsessing about the idea of crossing the line that you know is morally sound and yet try to avoid the punishment dictated by society to the point of only being freed of the thought by doing the
“Why is a Raven like a writing desk?” Because Poe wrote on both of them of course! Poe is a rather fanatical character who likes to enhance his stories with things that will shock normal people. Well known as the King of Horror he weaves interesting tales that would make any normal person cringe, but he wasn’t a normal person anything but, but really. He wove experienced tales that came from the murderers mind, penned them on paper, and then published them for the whole world to read. This method is the reason why “The Tale Tell Heart is so worth reading it draws the reader in by weaving a magnificent tale through people’s interpretations, Poe’s symbols, and the theme.
Not knowing he is going mad. In ' The Tell Tale Heart' the man has an
He found his way to the house and he hid in the attachment to the house where all of the pigs were kept. He spied on the family for a while and randomly doing good deeds. One night the ground was frozen and the De Lacey could not get their vegetables out of the ground, so the creature decided to dig all of the vegetables up that night. The De Lacey family woke up the next morning to having all of their vegetables dug out of the ground. So soon after that the landlord of the De Lacey family came to collect their rent, but the only one home was the grandpa of the De Lacey’s. So the grandpa started talking to the man and the man decided to push the grandpa down. Then the Creature came out and grabbed the man and threw him and made him leave. The grateful grandpa who appeared to be blind told the Creature to come...
The narrator thinks that if a murder is carefully planned, then the murderer is not insane. Also, the narrator claims he suffers from acuteness of the senses. Regarding the sound of the old man's beating heart, the narrator says, "And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses? --now, I say, there came to my ears a low dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton". The narrator claims he is not imagining the sound, but he is hearing it because his senses are so sharp.
He says it was his parents, his sister and him. Much like the current family living there, they had two children and the two parents. Apparently, the families discomfort gets much worse as the man continues. He goes from room to room mentioning things he had remembered with his parents. He suggested the window seal was his favorite place, unless his dad was home, showing that maybe they didn't have the best relationship.
Though the narrator just murdered the innocent old man, he believes he is justifiably sane and calm. This ironically, is not the case in retrospect. After burying the evidence of the murder the police arrive and question the narrator of the screams the neighbor reported. Still during this time, the narrator thought he was completely justified and sane. He kept reassuring himself they knew nothing while chatting and answering their questions. Just as he thought he was in the clear for the murder of the old man, the narrator begins to hear a thumping and beating noise. He is alarmed by the noise, worried the police who are questioning him are hearing the same noise he is. The noise he is hearing is of a heart. Not his own heart, nor the heart of the old man he just murdered, but is the cadence and realization of his own guilt. Throughout this story, it is obvious that he is either criminally insane and this story is real and has happened, or it is all in his imagination. The setting of this story is not known, so he could either be in prison telling this story, or in an insane asylum. Regarding the beating heart he is hearing, it symbolizes and shows satire in the murder that he has committed. After hearing the noise loudly and clearly, the narrator confesses to the police who he thinks also can hear the noise. The irony of his