How Does Edgar Allan Poe Create Suspense

Edgar Allan Poe uses irony to create suspense in "The Cask of Amontillado," to create a dark, dangerous short story. The protagonist, Montresor, plans to seek revenge on Fortunato, who insulted him, by killing him. Poe uses dramatic irony in the first paragraph by writing that Montresor is planning to kill Fortunato and get away with murdering him. The example of dramatic irony creates suspense, due to only the reader and Montresor knowing that Montresor is premeditating Fortunado's murder. Verbal irony is utilized to create suspense when Poe writes of Montresor and Fortunado making toasts, and Montresor saying, "And I to your long life" to Fortunado (Poe 347). Completely aware that he is going to murder Fortunado, yet Montresor toasts to Fortunado's

By using conflict Poe and Connell can build up suspense. When Rainsford got to the house he found on the island he knowed and someone answered the door. Connell writes,“In his hand the manned along barreled revolver and he was pointing it straight at Rainsford's heart” (Connell 4). When we are reading we assume that he’s going to get shot but, we don’t know that until we finish reading. We assume things are going to happen because of the suspense. In Poe’s story Montresor wants revenge but we don’t know why. Poe exclaims, “But when he ventured upon insult I lowed revenge” (Poe 372). We know that Montresor wants revenge but we don’t know what he’s going to do or why he wants revenge. The conflict is a very good part of the story

Edgar Allen Poe creates a disconcerting tone through his unique style of syntax in “The Tell Tale Heart.” He begins his short story by exclaiming, “TRUE! — nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” By using exclamations, Poe introduces readers to the unsettling eagerness of the speaker as well as his lack of self control. Then, the appearance of em dashes, which are used repeatedly throughout the piece, demonstrate his abstract and rapidly changing thought patterns.

For example,”How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily-how calmly I can tell you the whole story.”(Poe 354). This quote consists of a great deal of punctuation, which portrays the main character as jumpy and creates suspense.

Edgar Allen Poe is a well-known author that has published multiple stories including “The Tale-Tale Heart”, “The Raven”, and “The Cask of Amontillado”. Many that read his stories notice his development of an eerie setting and events that build suspense throughout each of his stories; many believe this is because he writes about events that happen around him in his life. Born on January 19, 1809 Edgar Allan Poe’s his parents die by the time he reaches the age of three, and Edgar is put up for adoption. Edgar is adopted by John and Francis Allan. By 1829, Poe’s step mother dies, and his step dad has nothing to do with him.

Have you ever wondered why you might find yourself on the edge of your seat at a horror movie? Or, maybe you find your heart racing once you get to the climax of a certain novel? Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most famous American authors known for his dark tales and poems. When reading his works, many feel drawn to them because of wanting to know what will happen to the characters. In many of his stories and poems, Poe uses different elements of suspense that contribute to the plot and features they have. In, The Raven and The Pit and the Pendulum, the creation of suspense is shown through the utilization of sound devices, imagery, and allusions.

Using imagery, particular word choice, and much repetition, Edgar Allan Poe has been widely known for his incredible ways of adding suspense to his work.

Edgar Allen Poe asserted that a story should be constructed to achieve a single effect and every word, detail, character, and incident in a story should contribute to this effect. Poe will commonly establish the story’s theme and its single effect within the first paragraph of his short stories. The main characters in his short stories are often bizarre, mad men, and the atmosphere of the story is very commonly dark and tenebrous. Poe evokes terror initially by trapping the reader in an ominous room along with the characters, building onto the terror by revealing the narrator’s constant derailing of thought and lack of communication with Lady Rowena.

Depending on the author’s style, syntax can greatly change the way a reader interprets the passage. Sometimes it adds to the tone and sometimes it gets the reader inside the minds of the characters. There are many different ways an author can use syntax to better their story and intrigue the readers. In the short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” written by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe uses syntax to describe the speaker’s mental state. Starting on the very first line, Poe begins with, “TRUE!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?”

In—syntax—ity Edgar Allan Poe’s syntactical genius vividly expresses insanity. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe uses pacing and emphasis to heighten the reader’s experience with the work. Using specific language, Edgar Allan Poe depicts the confession of the narrator in complete detail, encompassing the reader with the narrator’s insanity. Poe uses syntactical language to deepen sense in the last paragraph of “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Edgar Allan Poe has a distinctive and dark way of writing (Poe & Kennedy, pp.22). His mysterious style of writing appeals to passion and sentimentality. Poe’s most prominent works of fiction are gothic. His stories tend to have similar recurring theme of either death, lost love or both. Poe’s psychologically thrilling stories examining the depths of the humanoid psyche earned him much fame throughout his lifetime and after his death. And this distinctive style of writing made him possess his own style of wiring (Arbor, pp.71). There is a psychological concentration which is an important characteristic of Poe’s literatures, particularly the tales of horror that encompass his best and well-known works, such as The Black Cat and The Raven which

Authorial intrusion, which is uncommon in most works of contemporary fiction, is arguably the most important literary device Poe uses to construct the narrator’s manic voice. Though the entire story is written as a confessional, the unnamed chronicler frequently interrupts his recount to attempt to convince the reader that he actually isn’t insane. After explaining his egregious crime along with the motivation; the narrator proceeds to state  “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me” (92). These erratic sentences interrupt the flow of the writing but are extremely important in developing the narrator's voice as it further  Following the quote he explains the methodical lengths he went through; lengths that only an absolute psychopath would find rational, and attempts to justify them as his own cunning intellect rather than an insatiable desire to kill. He reiterates a similar variation of this sentence multiple times throughout his recounting of the events, “If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer” (95) and “have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?” (94), which again helps to reinforce this idea that the narrator is truly unaware of his own madness.

A virtuoso of suspense and horror, Edgar Allan Poe is known for his Gothic writing style. His style is created through his use of punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, tone, and figurative language. Punctuation-wise; dashes, exclamation marks, semicolons, and commas are a favorite of Poe. His sentences vary greatly; their structures are influenced by punctuation. Much of his word choice set the tone of his works. Figurative language colors his writings with description. Such is observed in the similarities between two of his most well-known short stories, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”

Punctuation in the form of commas and dashes is used to slow the pacing of the story and create suspense or an unresolved tone. Poe uses these dashes in “The Tell-Tale Heart” to emphasize the narrator’s madness, allowing the reader to hear and understand the fragmentation of the narrator’s thoughts on a much closer level. This is exemplified in one passage, where the narrator states “TRUE! -- nervous -- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses -- not destroyed -- not dulled them.” This adds to a jolting tone to the passage, as the narrator begins feverently, represented by exclamation points, then suddenly pauses for extended stretches, then starts again. The long pauses between statements caused by multiple dashes in a row evoke this aforementioned madness, due to the fact that, by normal standards, a “sane” person would not speak with such a disjointed

Edgar Allan Poe, renowned as the foremost master of the short-story form of writing, chiefly tales of the mysterious and macabre, has established his short stories as leading proponents of “Gothic” literature. Although the term “Gothic” originally referred only to literature set in the Gothic (or medieval) period, its meaning has since been extended to include a particular style of writing. In order for literature to be “Gothic,” it must fulfill some specific requirements. Firstly, it must set a tone that is dark, somber, and foreboding. Next, throughout the development of the story, the events that occur must be strange, melodramatic, or often sinister. Poe’s short stories are