How Does Poe Create Tension In The Tell Tale Heart
How does Poe use language and character to create tension in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’?
Edgar Allen Poe is considered to be a master of writing macabre stories. Poe generally writes using this theme which shows he is comfortable with writing morbid dark tales. He is able to write short stories which are full of tension – one main example being ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. The genre choice being ‘short story’ automatically creates tension. Compared to a general ‘novel’ they are massively different. A short story will leave a ton of details out of the story which may raise a lot of questions about some of the deeper secrets within the story. These questions are not answered leaving you to work it out for yourself as the story progresses. Short stories …show more content…
He previously mentioned how calm he would stay as the story would be told but now, due to him mentioning “the eye” his madness has been revealed again. It is seen as quite an irrational thing to say as it is seen as out of character and has gone against what he has previously said.
He quite calmly suggests how he is about to kill the old man which creates tension for the reader automatically.
“Very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever”.
By saying “I made up my mind”, we as an audience find how bluntly the man has said this very strange, as he has just calmly explained to us that he has planned a murder. He may be trying to tell us how he thinks it is so easy to take a life of someone or something that is annoying you in your life. He makes it sounds like it’s the obvious thing to do which adds to our opinion of the man’s sanity. There is an unbalance between what he thinks is right and between what we think is right.
The man seems to think himself as a genius where as we think differently.
“But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded – with what
Edgar Allen Poe is considered to be a master of writing macabre stories. Poe generally writes using this theme which shows he is comfortable with writing morbid dark tales. He is able to write short stories which are full of tension – one main example being ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. The genre choice being ‘short story’ automatically creates tension. Compared to a general ‘novel’ they are massively different. A short story will leave a ton of details out of the story which may raise a lot of questions about some of the deeper secrets within the story. These questions are not answered leaving you to work it out for yourself as the story progresses. Short stories …show more content…
He previously mentioned how calm he would stay as the story would be told but now, due to him mentioning “the eye” his madness has been revealed again. It is seen as quite an irrational thing to say as it is seen as out of character and has gone against what he has previously said.
He quite calmly suggests how he is about to kill the old man which creates tension for the reader automatically.
“Very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever”.
By saying “I made up my mind”, we as an audience find how bluntly the man has said this very strange, as he has just calmly explained to us that he has planned a murder. He may be trying to tell us how he thinks it is so easy to take a life of someone or something that is annoying you in your life. He makes it sounds like it’s the obvious thing to do which adds to our opinion of the man’s sanity. There is an unbalance between what he thinks is right and between what we think is right.
The man seems to think himself as a genius where as we think differently.
“But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded – with what