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The Use Of Suspense In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

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In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” suspense is created through the reoccurring use of repetition which, conjures up feelings of unease in the readers. The speaker is clearly unstable. The speaker who is “nervous-very,very dreadfully nervous”(1) throughout the story repeatedly asks the reader “How, then, am I mad?”(1), then goes on to justify his actions. The reader understands that the fear in the speaker is building up, but do not know the reason why. With an unstable speaker the readers are not certain if what is being told is true or just in the speaker’s mind. The reader remains in anticipation of the speakers next move.
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A murder over a eye? It seems like a silly idea but that is exactly what happens in the thrilling story The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. In The Tell-Tale Heart, The main character(the narrator) is trying to prove his point of not being mad by describing in great detail the murder he committed. The narrator wants to kill the old man because of his eye and for seven nights he watches the old man in hopes of seeing the eye to give him the rage he needs to kill him. On the eighth night, the narrator accidentally wakes the old man and finally sees the old man’s vulture eye.

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Suspense is an integral part of storytelling. Without suspense, certain stories would not create their intended effect. Edgar Allen Poe wrote many books and poems, which were all under a gothic theme. His writings were very dark and mysterious, and they all contained suspense. Poe’s novel “The Tell-Tale Heart” and his poem “The Raven” contain suspense, which is created through point-of-view, irony, and diction.

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