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How Does Poe Create Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

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“Death in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow... ” (Poe 91). This is something that turns the whole story in The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. In this story, the main character wants to kill the old man for the sake of having a “vulture’s eye”. However the main character can only kill the man when he can see his eye to get him roused up. But since the main character tries to kill him in his sleep, the vulture’s eye cannot be seen for he closes his eyes. Then one night the main character decides to spy on the old man once again when suddenly his hand slips and awakes the old man. Upon awaking the old man the main character sees the eye and is immediately infused with fury. Then the story takes off and the story becomes more suspenseful with every turn of the way. Suspense is the sense of …show more content…

An example is when the author writes “He has the eye of a vulture-pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold” (Poe 89). This builds suspense through vivid words by giving the reader a sense of detail and being able to imagine a vulture’s eye in the body of an old man. The reader can picture a figure with his blood running cold in the veins of the narrator as the narrator describes how he feels when he sees the vulture eye. Another example is when the author states, “My ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage” (Poe 92). This builds the suspense by giving the reader a sense of imagery as the narrator describes the situation he now faces with the beating heart. Building the imagery in the reader’s mind gives the reader a better picture of the situation possibly giving the reader a sense of living in the story and making them scared or worried about what going to

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