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How Does Poe Create Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

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Matthew corley “The Tell Tale Heart” By Edgar Allen Poe 11/17 Suspense Essay Suspense stories use a lot of literary devices to create suspense in the story. Edgar Allen Poe used three literary devices: mood irony and repetition. Irony is often used by many authors and broadens the sorties sense of humor and or suspense. Irony is creating suspense, in the way that when the reader knows something the character in the book doesn't it makes the story suspenseful because the reader knows what is most likely to happen. The narrator repeatedly says, “How am I mad?” throughout the story. This posess as irony irony due to the fact that the readers know the man is mad but he does not. This creates a sort of …show more content…

Creating suspense is all about using mood in the story and fitting in into the right places. The first sense of mood i the story is when the narrator says, “The disease had sharpened my senses not destroyed.” This line tells the reader that the narrator is about crazy and might have something wrong with him. Having a man in a s story where you know he isn't right in the head per se creates a suspense because you nothing is predictable you can't predict his next move like you can with a “normal” person. The carefulness the narrator takes before killing the man sets a creepy and eerie mood. Even more so when he states how careful how he is, “I turned the latch of his door and opened it oh so gently!” That lines creates and eerie suspense to the story. The carefulness of the narrator shows how serious he is about killing the old man. After the narrator kills the man he claims to hear his heart before he dies and during the police investigation he says this to himself. This adds to the fact that the narrator is not right in the head and makes the suspense even more eerie. Mood plays a big role in creating suspense in a story. Without a sort of suspenseful mood you can't have a suspenseful

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