The next morning, after the wish was made, tension is at a low level, ‘the brightness of the wintry sun’. And ‘there was an air of prosaic wholesomeness’. The atmosphere is therefore much less tense and much more contented in the next morning than on the knight before.
In the telltale heart, weather is not used very much to build up tension, but many other contributing factors are, such as light and darkness and internal and external environments.
Another main factor is building the tension in the monkeys paw and in the telltale heart is Light and Darkness.
This sets the atmosphere for the place, such as dark means evil and mysterious, light means bright and airy, also content. But there may be different types of light, such as an eerie light which may be associated with mystery and evil.
At the start of the ‘Monkeys Paw’, ‘the night was cold and wet’ and ‘the fire burned brightly’. This gives a good contrast from the evil and death associated with the dark of the outside to the warmth and wholesomeness of the internal atmosphere. It builds tension in a way that the reader knows that the darkness will penetrate into the internal atmosphere and cause havoc.
When Mr. White is sitting next to the dieing fire, he reaches out for a glass of water to quench the flames, ‘he sat alone in the darkness’ but instead grabs the monkeys paw. Therefore, the monkeys paw is associated with evil, as the light is supposed to be a sign of good, and when putting out the fire Mr. White accidentally picks up the paw, therefore the reader gets the impression that the monkeys paw is trying to quench the light.
The tension built up by Mr. White accidentally grabbing the paw is dissipated in the next morning, the atmosphere changes completely, and a much more affluent environment is created. ‘The brightness of the wintry sun’, the tension of the previous night has vanished. This relaxation of tension is then immediately tightened when the visitor from Maw and Meggins arrives. His body language is very furtive and he seems very mysterious ‘picked a piece of cotton’ ‘the mysterious movements of the man outside’. These actions from the man suggest that he has very bad news, also his hesitant fashion contributes to this. The tension climaxes when the man says ‘Badly hurt, but not in any pain’. Mrs. White misinterprets this, and the tension is temporarily relieved, but when the reality dawns upon her the tension collapses when the reader finds out that Herbert died.
Ten days after Herbert’s death, when the whites are sleeping in the warmth of the bed, Mrs. White is grieving for her dead son. Mr. White tells her to get back to bed because it is cold. In a sense, the warm bed is protecting the whites from the monkeys paw and its evil powers, as the bed is warm, and the outside is described as being cold, a gothic feature.
When Mrs. White suggests the paw to bring back, tension increases again ‘The paw, she cried wildly’. Tension gradually increases as Mrs. White says that they have two wishes left. She gets out of bed and proceeds to the paw where she makes Mr. White make the wish.
Soon after the wish is made, the knocking starts, ‘A third knock resounded through the house’. Mrs. White thinks that this knocking is Herbert and tries to rush towards the door. Mr. White stops her. She then breaks free and runs to the door tension is at its highest.
At the end of the story, when Mrs. White rushes down to open the door, tension is at its highest level. ‘A cold wind rushed up the stairs’, a cold draught is gothicly associated with disappearings and mystery. Herbert seems to have vanished from outside of the door. As Mr. White used the monkeys paw to banish him.
In conclusion, tension is built up throughout the monkeys paw in through the weather features, the internal and external environments and the light and darkness. These are all features associated with gothic literature. Also, the audiences are put under suspense by the unfolding of events and when the tension climaxes at.
Throughout ‘The Telltale Heart’, various methods have been used by Edgar Allan Poe to portray the buildup of tension. ‘The Telltale Heart’ is written in gothic style, meaning that the tension is an important factor to contributing to an ominous atmosphere. Throughout the ‘Telltale Heart’, there are contrasting methods used in the buildup of tension, such as the use of repetition and capitalized words.
There are different methods used in the monkeys paw and the tell-tale heart, the ‘The Telltale Heart’ uses methods such as changing the speed of time throughout the story, and repetition. The monkeys paw uses Pathetic fallacy.
In the first line of the story, the opening word is capitalized, and throughout the rest of the sentence, repetition is used. ‘TRUE! nervous, very, very nervous’. This catches the reader’s attention, and also gives the reader the impression that the narrator is mad. The long sentences are also used to describe the narrator’s condition, and rhetorical questions are also used.
It also gives the reader a feeling that something is going to take place, which is involved with death of someone, or someone being badly hurt due to the narrator’s schizophrenia in gothic nature.
Also, throughout the first paragraph, the reader is told a rhetorical question: ‘how then am I mad?’ This creates more tension, by the reader wanting answers, and makes them want to read on. Also, this suggests that the narrator’s state of mind is very agitated and confused.
A main factor in creating tension in this story is the narrator’s state of mind, when he triumphs upon a discovery, the tension builds, ‘I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!’ The reader wants to know more, and reads on. And find more about the eagle eye which the narrator despises. Also, it builds tension whenever the eye is mentioned, as the reader wants to know more.
Another tension building factor is the pace of time in the story, the author uses different phrases to slow down and speed up the pace of time throughout the story. ‘Seven long nights’ from the fast pace when how the narrator watches the old man at night. This phrase creates an immediate slow down in pace of the story. Furthermore, when the narrator has described the eighth night, in a fast pace ‘the old man sprang up in bed’, the time slows by the use of phrases such as ‘for a whole hour I did not move a muscle’. The pace of the story constantly slows and quickens, this effectively builds tension, and draws the reader on. An example of this is with the lantern, which he put into the old mans room, ‘slowly, very, very slowly’. The narrator tries to emphasize the time and care he took in placing the lantern. Also he emphasises the slowness of his movements. This slows down the pace of the reader and makes them think about the care and effort the narrator takes to place the lantern and thrust his head in.
When the old man groans, this quickens the pace of the story, as the narrator starts talking about his fears, and the old mans fears of death. The sentences used become much shorter and precise, without commas, thus making the reader read faster.
After the series of short sentences, the pace slows once more, ‘waited a long time’ and ‘you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily’. There is more buildup of tension here, as the reader thinks that something is going to happen. The word stealthily sounds snake like and seems to describe the narrator sneaking like a snake into the old mans room.
Repetition and capital letters also emphasise some of suspense contributing factors throughout the story. In the first sentence, the starting word is capitalised to catch the reader’s attention, and to give the impression that the narrator is mad. Also, repetition is used throughout various stages of the story to slow time down. ‘Steadily, steadily’. The word ‘very’ is often used to emphasise certain points ‘a very, very little crevice’. The narrator uses these words to emphasise and show to the reader how stealthily he did something, due to the narrator wanting to emphasize his triumphs, and what he was proud of doing so well.
Noise description also is a technique used to build tension, such as ‘A bell sounded for the hour’. This greatly builds tension, as the reader may think that death of a character is coming, due to a bell ringing before a funeral. Meaning death of a person is imminent. ‘Hinges creaked’ this also creates tension, as the reader will want to know who is behind the door; This creates an eerie effect of a ghostly presence behind the door.
Finally, a large proportion of the story is descriptive language, overall, there if very little in the plot of the story; it is mainly made up of description. Mainly of the narrator speaking about himself not being mad. ‘You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing’. And also, his descriptions of placing the lantern and of the eagle eye. These he takes time and effort to take care of, and he makes sure to say that he despises the eagle eye very much. And to what extent he will go to destroy it.
There are a large variety of different ways in which tension is built up, ranging from noises to the repetition. These all contribute to give a story which is full of tension all of the way through. The narrator describes the lantern placing in great detail, and his hatred of the eagle eye too. These are two of the main factors he uses to build tension.
At the end of the story, there is a great buildup of tension, when the narrator finally goes completely mad. There are an increased use of capital letters, rhetorical questions, long sentences and exclamation marks.
‘now I grew VERY pale’. Towards the end, the narrator is becoming scared, and he also becomes very confused, in contrast to before, where he planned out everything in detail. ‘O God what COULD I do?’ There is also evidence that he becomes mad, ‘I swore – I foamed – raved!’. Towards the end of the story, he becomes hysterical and mad, as in contrast to when he was collective and stable at the start of the play.
