Suspense In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

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Have you ever heard of a man driven to murder because simply he was disgusted with another man’s eye? Well that’s what the literary piece “The Tell-Tale Heart” is all about. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a literary horror piece written by Edgar Allen Poe in 1843. Despite its old age, it still appeals to many readers and is still read as one of his greatest works. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is very rich in its individualism and the suspense that surrounds the story. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a unique story that, at the same time, is horrifyingly realistic.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” is written by an insane man, the narrator, and tells of a man who is driven to murder because of his disgust of another man’s eye. He first talks about how the thought came about, …show more content…
This is when “...the old man sprang up in the bed, crying out- “Who's there?” Then the caregiver caught sight of the old man’s eye and said, “It was open—wide, wide open—and I grew furious as I gazed upon it.” (Poe, 91). These both create a gargantuan amount of suspense because the narrator foreshadowed the death of the old man earlier in the story saying, “...I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” (Poe, 89). Putting these together you can assume and predict that the caregiver will execute the old man and will do so soon. The suspense builds as you anticipate the murder of the old man from the craze and insanity of his caregiver.
The characters of the story are exceedingly realistic, especially for the horror genre. The old man is realistic because of the extent his affliction due to his age. It would make sense that he has a caregiver to assist him with his day to day care. The caregiver is realistic because of his mental illness. It causes him to have irrational behavior especially when it comes to something as little as the way an eye looks as he says, “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the
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