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The Tell-Tale Heart Genre

Decent Essays

“Where there is no imagination there is no horror.” This idea is discussed in “What is the Horror Genre” and this essay will analyze “The Tell-Tale Heart” according to the criteria put forth by the author S. Russel. Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most famous horror story writers because he used his life experience and imagination to give us suspenseful characters and events. “The Tell-Tale Heart” provides suspense through the events of murder and disposing the body.

In “What is the Horror Genre”, she says “Some horror comes from inside the characters. Something goes wrong inside, and a person becomes a monster.” (Russel, 128) This is the case in “The Tell-Tale Heart” because the main character isn’t a monster and there are no real monsters in the story, but once he thinks of a plan to kill the old man, he changes. Thus, he becomes a monster driven to kill the old man. What led to him killing the old man was because of an eye, an eye that made him nervous. “I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” (Poe, 89) …show more content…

“ I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it—oh, so gently!” (Poe,

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