Suspense
Suspense: a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. Suspense is a popular literary device that many authors use. Richard Connell in ¨The Most Dangerous Game¨ and Edgar Allan Poe in ¨The Cask of Amontillado¨ are two examples of effective use of the different levels of suspense. Both stories go head to head with many´s opinion, but Connell utilizes this better than Poe. Here, one could give both sides of the argument and also present a claim to which author they think is really the best at what they do. Richard Connell in ¨The Most Dangerous Game¨ is better at utilizing suspense that Edgar Allan Poe in ¨The Cask of Amontillado¨.
¨Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" narrates Rainsford's encounter
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This story is a confession of a man who committed a horrible crime half a century ago (Barbara). No doubt that Edgar Allan Poe is good at what he writes, but Richard Connell in “The Most Dangerous Game” utilizes suspense more. By stating this, Connell's writing in ¨The Most Dangerous Game¨ is based upon more suspense while Edgar Allan Poe's writing in ¨The Cask of Amontillado¨ is based on imagery more than it is suspense. But, nonetheless, suspense is in fact built upon imagery and uses this literary device as a huge stepping stone in both of these authors’ writings. Here is one´s opinion on how Richard Connell's levels of suspense is truly the best.
Richard Connell in ¨The Most Dangerous Game¨ utilizes suspense more than Edgar Allan Poe in ¨The Cask of Amontillado¨. In ¨The Cask of Amontillado¨ by Edgar Allan Poe, imagery is used more than suspense, even though this is a huge stepping stone for the literary device. In ¨The Most Dangerous Game¨ by Richard Connell, the different levels of suspense are used more effectively through Rainsford's traps in the story. So, here is why Richard Connell in ¨The Most Dangerous Game¨ is better at utilizing suspense in his story than Edgar Allan Poe in ¨The Cask of
Suspense is the build up of anxiety or excitement in a story. It is an incredibly useful literary element. People like to read suspenseful stories, and/or watch suspenseful shows and movies because suspense gets their hearts racing. Suspense in movies and books might keep the audience intrigued and make them wonder what will happen next. People also like suspense because they might like trying to figure out what will happen on their own. This will keep the audience intrigued because they want to know how close they were to the exact answer. There are many stories that display suspense and many different authors who wrote them. One book that used suspense was Cujo, by Stephen King. Cujo was a dog that was bitten by a bat. He then turns into
In Dahl’s short story and in Jacob’s short story, both depict suspense through tone and description. For example, in the “The Landlady”, the narrator stated, “I stuff all my little pets.” This example reveals suspense by providing the landlady killed and stuffed her pets. Furthermore,
Suspense, something vital filmmakers, and authors need in their stories, but how does someone include suspense in their stories that gets the audience on the edge of their seats and begging for more? In the essay, “Let Em’ Play God” by Alfred Hitchcock, he states that letting the audience know everything while the characters don’t create suspense.
According to Scott Foresman Advanced Dictionary, anticipation is the act of anticipating; looking forward to; expectation. A suspense author has done their job when their reader is anticipating every action their character performs. Mystery elements create suspense in various short stories. In“Invitation to a Murder” by Josh Pachter, “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, and “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle create uncertainty as a result of the mystery elements they contain. “Invitation to a Murder” by Josh Pachter uses these elements to highlight a planned crime where a group of criminologists act as a jury for an indirect murder.
Suspense is the feeling of uncertainty or excitement, in waiting for an outcome or decision. Edgar Allan Poe uses suspense in his story “Masque of the Red Death” by using objects and great descriptive detail. Poe’s story is about a prince that tries to escape from the inevitable. He tries to lock himself away from the ‘red death’ and has a masquerade ball that doesn’t end happily. Prince and all of his guests die inside or around the seventh apartment room. The seventh room is preceded by six colored rooms which are meant to symbolize either the stages of life, or the seven sins. Inside the last room there are black velvet tapestries that hang all over the ceiling and down the walls. The window panes are a deep blood red color which gives the room an unwelcoming atmosphere. On the western wall, there is a gigantic clock of a deep black wood. Inside it has a pendulum that swings back and forth with a dull monotonous clang. When the minute hand marks a new hour, there is a clear, loud, deep sound, which can be heard from far away. Although it can give off an eerie feeling, the great eb...
Being able to feel the world in any story is an excellent way to make readers get involved in it, and Connell does this by using imagery. Connell writes, “The sensuous drowsiness of the night was on him. ‘It’s so dark,’ he thought, ‘that I could sleep without closing my eyes; the night would be my eyelids’”(Connell 217). The mood of this quote can make any reader feel drowsy because of the way Connell describes the night. Again this is something Poe cannot achieve. For example, Poe writes, “I took from their sconces two flambeaux, and giving one to Fortunato, bowed him through several suites of rooms to the archway that led into the vaults. I passed down a long and winding staircase, requesting him to be cautious as he followed. We came at the length to the foot of the descent and stood together upon the damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresors” (Poe 867). This quote doesn’t even compare to what Connell did because Poe wrote The Cask of Amontillado without any imagery. The tone and mood created by Connell make the imagery of “The Most Dangerous Game” better than Poe’s short
Literary devices are tools used by the author to help the reader understand a given literary work. Writers use different literary devices depending on their style and what they wish their reader to get out of their work. One important literary device that is essential for a successful literary work is theme. Theme is the general insight into life that the author shares with the reader. There are a number of different methods from which an author can choose to present his/her theme. One common strategy is to communicate the theme through the use of mood; the overall feeling or emotion conjured within the reader. In Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The Cask of Amontillado," and in Saki's short story, "The Interlopers," the mood evoked within the reader is used to communicate the short story's overall theme.
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is a mystery that offers great suspense and interest. This is because of the irony that Poe creates and the setting that makes a dangerous mood and foreshadows the victim’s death. In the beginning of the story, the narrator meets a man named Fortunato at an Italian carnival with the intentions for murdering him in the foreseeable future. The narrator talks with Fortunato saying, “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met,” (1). These first words spoken by the narrator show verbal irony because the narrator is not really saying that they met luckily. In fact, as I stated before, the narrator was planning this encounter, with the plan ending with Fortunato’s death. This proves to be suspenseful for the reader because they want to discover Fortunato’s actual fate while wishing they could tell Fortunato of the
Edgar Allan Poe is known for some of the most horrifying stories ever written through out time. He worked with the natural world, animals, and weather to create chilling literature. Two most notable thrillers are “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe was infatuated with death, disfigurement, and dark characteristics of the world. He could mix characters, setting, theme,and mood in a way that readers are automatically drawn into reading. Both of these short stories have the same major aspects in common.
A main theme presented in “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is that Montresor shows obsession with the murder of fortunato. This is exemplified by Montresor’s precise planning, carefulness and slowness of speed in the process.
"The Cask of Amontillado" is one of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest stories. In this story Poe introduces two central characters and unfolds a tale of horror and perversion. Montresor, the narrator, and Fortunato, one of Montresor's friends, are doomed to the fate of their actions and will pay the price for their pride and jealousy. One pays the price with his life and the other pays the price with living with regret for the rest of his life. Poe uses mystery, irony, and imagery to create a horrifying, deceptive, and perverse story.
In John Irving's novel titled, A Prayer for Owen Meany, suspenseful events are of abundance, and there are multiple ways the author creates this suspense. Among these methods of creating suspense, four that stand out are the use of setting, the pace of the story, the involvement of mysteries to be solved, and the ability of the reader to easily identify and sympathize with the protagonist. By placing a character in a gloomy or solitary place, uncomfortable feelings are created, which append to the suspense. Pace and structure of the story also play into the foundation of suspense, as shorter sentences and stronger, more cutting verbs and adjectives are often used to keep the reader highly interested and reading at a rapid speed. Of course, suspense could not be considered what it is if there were no mystery involved. The element of not knowing what is in store for the future and having the urge to find out is the essence of suspense. Also, if the reader cannot easily relate to and sympathize with the character in the suspenseful situation, a loss of interest can arise, and therefore spoil the spirit of the tension. Uncomfortable settings, pace and structure, use of mysteries, and capability to relate to the main character are four techniques that John Irving uses to create suspense.
A virtuoso of suspense and horror, Edgar Allan Poe is known for his Gothic writing style. His style is created through his use of punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, tone, and figurative language. Punctuation-wise; dashes, exclamation marks, semicolons, and commas are a favorite of Poe. His sentences vary greatly; their structures are influenced by punctuation. Much of his word choice set the tone of his works. Figurative language colors his writings with description. Such is observed in the similarities between two of his most well-known short stories, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”
Poe presents the narrators of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado" as devious, obsessed characters. Both are overpowered by the need to consume the life of their victim. Though they use different strategies to carry out the murders in different ways, obsession is the driving force in both. It is this obsession that inspires them to design cunning strategies and carry out the executions.
Poe starts out with a man, by the name of Montresor, wanting revenge on another man, named Fortunato. Most of the story takes place deep in the Montresor family catacombs. As Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs, he chains Fortunato up to a small hole in a wall, bricks it over, and leaves Fortunato to die. Even through the traits of anger, hatred, and revenge, as the story progresses on, Montresor, the main character in “The Cask of Amontillado”, starts to show signs of feeling guilty for wanting to murder Fortunato.