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Summary Of A Fine Art By Thomas De Quincey

1076 Words5 Pages

This paper is for you. Yes, for you, the person reading this. You are my audience, I am your narrator. While breaking the fourth wall is used relatively often in modern media, with Ferris Bueller talking to the audience like he and the viewer are high school pals or Patrick Bateman addressing the audience to give a glimpse into his psycho world, when Thomas De Quincey wrote his essay, “A Postscript to On Murder as a Fine Art”, readers previously were inactive witnesses to the unfolding plot. De Quincey changed the reader’s role in literature and inspired countless authors of thrillers and murder mysteries. Scholars point to De Quincey as one of the first horror novelists, inspiring creators like Alfred Hitchcock in how to keep the audience …show more content…

In describing the atmosphere of the town after the first murders had occurred, De Quincey tells the reader, “Let the reader then figure to himself the pure frenzy of horror when in this hush of expectation, looking, indeed, and waiting for the unknown arm to strike once more, but not believing that any audacity could be equal to such an attempt as yet, whilst all eyes were watching, suddenly, on the twelfth night from the Marr murder, a second case of the same mysterious nature, a murder on the same exterminating plan, was perpetrated in the very same neighborhood” (113). De Quincey begins this passage with the end result, a “pure frenzy of horror”. Everything within the passage is building up to the second case of murders, as if the reader and the town are holding their breath. The town is quiet and watchful, waiting for further calamity. Having this as one long, continuous sentence builds suspense, bringing an idea of inevitability and a quiet reflection, wondering who the next victims will be. The repetition of the word “same” gives a driving force to the sentence, moving it forward to the murders. This is reinforced by the imagery of a clock in, “waiting for the unknown arm to strike once more”. This conjures an image of a clock hand just about to move to the next hour, with the double meaning of the murderer preparing to strike down another victim. Once again, De Quincey speaks directly to his reader, crafting the passage to point the reader towards the town’s perspective, again adding

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