tension and suspense of the tell tale heart

The setting is in two different places as one part is in the house which i think is near other houses as it says "a shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night." The other part of the setting is inside the mind of the narrator, as when the police come over the mad man can hear the beating of the dead man's heart. which take place within his own imagination." the hellish tatoo of the heart increased."

Poe creates a gothic atmosphere by using elements like "that chilled the very marrow in my bones." Poe is streesing the fact that the eye is evil and feels that just looking at the eye makes him feel uncomfortable. In "Tell Tale Heart " most of the action takes place at midnight which gives a dark atmosphere. Also Poe uses elements like "black as pitch" which explains how dark it is.

At the start of "The Tell Tale Heart" Poe slows down the pace to create suspense. As the story goes on the pace increases especially when the old man is killed and when the police come to the house. Poe slows down the pace by using repetition such as "oh, so cautiosly- causiously" which makes it sound "evil." Also when he says "steadily, steadily" which also slows down the pace. Both of these use repetition which slows down the pace to create suspense. Poe increases the pace by using short sentances repeating words but putting exclimation marks into it such as " it grew louder i say louder every moment!" Also "and now-again-hark! louder!louder!louder!LOUDER!" This repeats but uses explination marks to show the tone of voice (shouting).

In "The Tell Tale Heart" as the narrator is telling the story of how "wisely" he kills the old man the narator uses a smug attitude. Such as " i knew what the old man felt, and i pitied him although i chuckled at heart." This makes the reader feel that the mad man is actually mad as he is laughing at the old mans fear.

Also at the start of the story and at the end of the story there is a nervous atmosphere like at the start of the story the narrator states that he is nervous by saying " nervous, very, very, dreadfully nervous" at the end of the story the narrator is nervous as he says " they heared!-they suspected- they knew!" He was really paranoid and tense. This creates tention for the reader.

Poe uses noises to appeal ton the readers sences such as " its dreadful echo" to make it sound like its playing over and over like an echo. Also "the groan of mortal terror" which groan makes the reader think pain. He also uses the word mortal which makes i, and the reader think that he may not be human. Maybe he is imortal, or in he may think he is.

Poe uses lots of stylistic devices such as italics, capital letters, and punctuation. Poe uses capital letters in some words such as " TRUE" he uses this in capital letters to grab the attention. Also Poe uses italics like "will" this is to make you read this in a deeper tone of voice to express it. Poe uses alot of exclimation marks"!" such as " but anything was better than this agony!"to change the tone of voice to a higher volume. Another type of punctuation Poe uses is dashes "-" to add more to the sentace like " i smiled- for what had i to fear?"

Poe uses lots of words that represent horror such as "hell" and "blood" these words are adjectives and are used to describe things such as " the hellish tatoo of the heart." Poe uses lots of words like this. These words have an effect on the reader as it is emotive language.

Poe describes the eye in two differnt ways during the story these are "a vulture eye" and "a evil eye." This reffurs back to ancient times when people used to think that having an eye with a film over it means that you give off bad spirits. The narrator has an obsession over the eye and drives him to madness.

As it comes to the end of the story the suspension is at its most. there is lots of short sentances and so the pace is fast. There is so much going on there is the beating of the heart, the mad man stressing and the police talking. It all builds up and then he confesses and says "villans! disemble no more! I admit the deed!- tear up the planks!-here, here- it is the beating of the hideous heart!"