Edgar Allan Poe Elements of Suspense
The literary genre known as horror has intrigued readers' for centuries. One of the masters of horror, Edgar Allan Poe, uses many elements to horrify and captivate his audience. These elements include sense of sight, and sense of hearing. In the stories "The Tell Tale Heart," and "The Pit and the Pendulum," Poe uses the above elements to add suspense, and meaning to the theme of each tale. Edgar Allan Poe uses the theme of eyes, and the loss of sight in "The Tell Tale Heart," and The "Pit and the Pendulum," but in dissimilar ways. For example, in "The Tell Tale Heart," an anonymous narrator kills an old man. The narrator's motive was the old man's "vexing eye." The eye was described as follows: "[the eye] resembled that of vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it." The narrator had nothing against the old man, but his eye was so repulsive to his assassin, that the only way it could be dealt with is by destroying the old man. The narrator explains how he crept into the old man's room, and proceeded to kill the old man. The motive for murder is reinstated in this quote: "I grew furious as I gazed upon [the eye]. I saw it with perfect distinctness-all a dull blue, with a hideou
The loss of sight is crucial to the suspense at this point, because he finds out about the pit by accident. The following quote relates his reaction to the darkness: Perspiration burst from every pore . To do this, he feels his way around the wall of the dungeon. " This definitely impacts the reader, because the only way this man can realize his surroundings is by relying on his other senses. Poe uses the eyes in both "The Tell Tale Heart," and "The Pit and the Pendulum," to create suspense for the reader. As the narrator is about to kill the old man, he hears the old man's heart beating. The narrator soon regains composure andt tries to find out the shape and size of the dungeon. He would have gotten away with the murder - - if he hadn't confessed that he killed the old man. The narrators loss of sight again creates suspense. Sound also becomes very important to the ending. Bibliography Edgar Allan Poe. The narrator was a victim of the Spanish Inquisition, and kept captive. The narrator describes the dark vault were he is held in the following quote: " My worst thoughts, then, were confirmed.
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