how is the tell tale heart an effective short story

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How is the Tell Tale Heart an effective short story?

The writer of this story, Edgar Allan Poe, believed that short stories should be read in one sitting so that the meaning of the story would not be interrupted. In addition he believed that the reader should look for the meaning of the story and that if the meaning was too obvious the writing was no longer an art. Also he believed that a work should have one specific effect. And he strictly believed that there should be nothing unnecessary on the page.  He also noted that short stories were superior because the information in the short story could be taken easily while, when reading a novel you would need to breaks, which could disrupt the meaning of the story in the reader. Also what makes an effective short story is when the story gets right into the plot and hooks you effectively and doesn’t have the build up like in a novel and it has to be concentrating one hundred percent on the plot not drifting which as a result also drifts the reader’s attention to the story.  

The main effect that of Edgar Allan Poe, the author, intended was that of morbid curiosity. Morbid curiosity is when you know something bad is going to happen but you know you cannot help it. The narrator, who is also the murderer in the story, said:  “ I undid the lantern cautiously – oh so cautiously (for the hinges creaked) ”. The word cautiously provides suspense and in addition it hints to the reader that something bad, inhumane is going to happen. Also when someone is assassinated they are assassinated cautiously so the victim cannot escape what is going to happen to him or her. In addition the murderer, who mystifies us by not telling us if it is male or female, stated: “ for a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime, I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting up in the bed, listening: just as I have done night after night hearkening to the death watches into the wall ”. This quote shows that the poor old man who had this “ Evil Eye” did agonisingly know that he was going to be murdered and not have a peaceful death despite a very long life and that he could not help it. And this makes the reader feel sympathetic with the old man.

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The author of this very good effective short story created suspense very well. For example in the first two sentences in the story the narrator gave the impression that he or she is a very strange person by saying: “ TRUE! Nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why WILL you say that I am mad? ”. In addition, he, Edgar Allan Poe did this because if you want to have an effective short story, you would need to create suspense very quickly. Therefore in a novel you could build up suspense in pages and ...

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