How Do Literary Elements Inflict A Scary Perception Of A Publication

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How do Literary Elements inflict a Scary Perception of a Publication? No matter the genre, filmmakers, authors, and artists all use a similar strategy to lure in their publications and attract their audience. Edgar Allen Poe’s renowned publications, “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” along with W. W. Jacob’s “The Monkey’s Paw,” are great examples of these literary techniques. Poe and Jacob’s use of elaborate imagery, repeating symbolism, and the overall mysterious setting of a publication all come together to create a suspenseful and scary environment that stimulates the audience’s perception of horror. First of all, the appalling imagery in “The Cask of Amontillado” conveys fear to the reader. The short story states, “Finally …show more content…

The author also adds, “Against three of the walls there were piles of bones higher than our heads” (Poe 32). This example shows how using scary elements like bones can give feelings of death and hell. Additionally, symbols (sometimes gruesome) used in “The Tell-Tale Heart” repeat over and over again, giving an ominous mood to the story. An example of this is when the narrator cannot stop obsessing over an evil eye (Poe 2). Another example is the old man’s heart, which can’t seem to stop beating, even after he is dead (Poe 13). These unorthodox objects not only frighten the readers with disgusting body parts, but they also represent something deeper than the actual appearance. The eye could symbolize death and hell, and the beating heart could symbolize guilt, anxiety, and stress, all of which build suspense in the viewer’s mind. Another strategy many horror authors use is placing the setting in a mysterious and spooky place. This can be depicted in “The Monkey’s Paw,” where parts of the story are based in the cemetery (Jacobs 96). Many writers use places like cemeteries and morgues to frighten their audiences with the thought of death, since death is a universal