Have you ever read one of Edgar Allan Poe’s works, such as “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” or “The Fall of the House of Usher”? These horror stories utilize specific literary elements to evoke suspense within the reader’s mind. There are several ways an author can do this- the main methods being foreshadowing, reverse dramatic irony, a sadistic choice, and sudden reversals. In “August Heat,” author W.F. Harvey withholds information from the reader and uses foreshadowing and sudden reversals/reveals to get the reader to feel suspense. One of the first techniques Harvey uses is a sudden reveal. The mood of the story starts out somewhat light, if a bit odd. An artist- our protagonist, James Clarence Withencroft- spends …show more content…
The most unsettling thing about the gravestone was the date and cause of death; an extreme case of foreshadowing. The very day they met was, indeed, the 20th of August, and our protagonist had stated within the first few lines of the story that he is of perfect health; afflicted with no ailments of any kind. The only way he would die would have to be due to some sort of terrible accident- an awful fate to discover so shortly before the predestined time of disaster. At the end of the story, it is revealed that Withencroft is transcribing this story less than an hour before midnight on the 20th. He fully believes that he will die according to the tombstone’s prediction, stating that the dread and anticipation of the event is stifling, suffocating within the room he’s in. He’s practically going mad. The fact that the story drops off so suddenly here implies that something has indeed befallen Withencroft- it doesn’t have a proper ending, because he did not survive long enough to transcribe what transpired afterwards. The ambiguity and sudden cliffhanger leaves the reader with a sense of unease and confusion, impelling them to infer just how horribly Withencroft met his