How Does Poe Create Fear In The Tell Tale Heart

If someone committed a crime would the guilt eat away at them and eventually would they have to come forward and confess the crime they have done? Poe created fear and dread throughout the Tell Tale Heart story in many different ways. He does so by the characters he has, the suspense that has the readers drawn in, and the setting at which it takes place.
Poe creates fear and dread through the way he portrays the characters and they way he makes them out to be. The narrator creates lots of fear by the readers by the ways he acts and talks and explains how he planned out to kill the old man with the creepy eye. First, the narrator is very unreliable in the fact that he has to keep reassuring us, the readers, that he’s not insane or mad. When

How, then, am I mad? Hearken! And observe how healthily- how calmly I can tell you the whole story” (Poe 303). He has to keep restating how he’s not mad and therefore shows how truly mad and crazy he really is. He also says how he can tell you the story on how he kills the old man and can tell it calmly like he did nothing wrong. He justifies his actions by how he planned it out so perfectly and hid it so great that it was like he did nothing wrong. His voice, never shaking or showing just a slight hint of remorse, told the story like he truly believed he had done nothing wrong (Adjective). This shows the fear that he puts in the readers because he can kill someone and feel no remorse so what else is he capable of doing. The narrator’s actions also prove how crazy he is. He stalks the old man and watches him sleep and enjoys himself in the fact that he has no idea that he’s there watching him for a whole week. The narrator is very two faced in that he’s nice to the old man during the day and then at night he is planning on killing him. The narrator says “I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he had passed the night” (Poe 303). He was polite to