Suspense In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe

“Alone. Yes, that's the key word, to the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn't hold a candle to it and hell is only a poor system.” This quote was once said by the famous American horror author, Stephen King, to express the feeling about being alone. Almost everyone dreads being alone, especially in the dark. The book “The Tell-Tale Heart” written by Edgar Allen Poe creates a feeling of horror because the old man is alone in the dark. Poe’s story is a horror story because of the setting, suspense, and elements of the supernatural. The story “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a horror story is because of the setting. The setting in this short story takes place in the old man's room that was “as black as pitch with the thick darkness” as described on page 90 on lines 51 and 52. When readers think of spooky houses at midnight, they usually think about horror because things always happen at midnight because the lighting is

Suspense takes place when the character is stalking the old man for seven nights. During the seven nights, the reader is waiting to see what he does afterwards and this causes the reader to become anxious. Another place in this story that causes the reader suspense is when the character is slowly placing his head through the crack in the door. On page 90 on lines 21 through 30 it gives detail about when the character does this. It says “Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly-very, very, slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man’s sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed.” This excerpt from the story shows the suspense taken place when he cautiously places his head inside of the room. The reader feels anxious while the character places his head into the room because they want to know what happens