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Suspense In Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat

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What gives the reader that feeling of being on the edge of their seat? Why would he want the reader to anticipate what’s going to happen next? That is how the author expresses tension. The author does this by using literary devices. Edgar Allen Poe builds suspense in “The Black Cat” by using specific literary devices—foreshadowing, allusion, and slow pace. The author increases the feeling of anxiety in the story by using foreshadowing. For example, after the narrator obtains the second black cat, he notices that the white patch on the second cat’s chest is forming into something. When the narrator realizes what the shape of the patch on the beast chest is, he states, “It was now the representation of an object that I shudder to have—and for this, above all, I loathed, and dreaded, and would have rid myself of the monster had I dared—it was how, I say, the image of a hideous—of a ghastly thing—of the GALLOWS!” (Poe 4) The following night after the narrator kills the cat, the house catches on fire and the next day the narrator comes back to the house to see the ruins and came to see a group of people around a strange bas relief on the wall. The narrator was terrified when he saw what the bas relief was and the narrator writes, “There had been a rope about the animal’s neck” (Poe 3). …show more content…

Early into the story the wife makes frequent allusion, “all black cats are witches in disguise” (Poe 1), which is a popular ancient notation. This tells the reader that they should be suspicious of Pluto because he could possibly be a witch. When the narrator introduces Pluto to the reader he writes “Pluto—this was the cats name” (Poe 1). In Roman mythology Pluto is the god of the underworld. So when the narrator does all those horribly things to him and all this weird stuff start happening, it makes the reader nervous to know if Pluto could actually be the one causing this stuff to

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The Raven crafts the idea of suspense by using a range of different types of literary features. The use of hyperboles creates more suspense because the more exaggeration used grips the reader in more. Describing the Raven as “Ghastly, Grim and ancient” (8) makes the idea that the author is trying to get through, more coherent as Poe is offering more description. The way Poe repeats his “Sorrow for the lost Lenore” (2) helps embed the idea that he misses Lenore but it also makes the reader wonder where she went, why she left and why she is so important, which creates suspense. The way Poe uses repetition and pathos when he is trying to get an idea through is very prominent.

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Suspense seems to be something that lingers through each story. From the beginning of “The Cask of Amontillado,” the story only grew more and more suspenseful. It all began when Montresor explains to us that he had been insulted and would get revenge. Montresor stated, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge,” (Poe 1). Additionally, in “The Masque of the Red Death,” the story had also been suspenseful since the start when we learned about the Red Death and what it had caused.

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In these two stories Poe uses foreshadowing in way that if the reader spots the small details or Poes “word playing “ he/she can predict what will happen or get a hint of what will happen. In Black Cat there are few foreshadows. One foreshadow is when the narrator sees a cat in the wall and Pluto`s color being black is believed to be unlucky and in this story the narrator is unhappy and unlucky. The narrator gets gouth because of a cat being inside a wall.

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