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Terror in The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan Poe is an American writer that is said to be the most influential and widely spread author of his time ( Prentice Hall Literature p. 192). Poe writes so vividly about everything he describes and most of the time he is very dark. He has been said to have been crazy, but it all leads back to his past. His father left him as a young boy and also lost his wife in his later years. The bizarre sentence structure, important diction, and dramatic images that Poe uses throughout the short story ?The Tell-Tale Heart? (Online Literature Library http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/tell-tale-heart.html), leaves the feeling of terror amongst the readers.
All through Poe?s story the use of outlandish sentence structure is noticeable, but also contributes to the mood of the story. Poe?s different and short sentence structure creates suspense and curiosity:
It grew louder--louder-- louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God!--no, no? They heard!-- they suspected!--they KNEW!-- they were making a mockery of my horror!-- this I thought, and this I think.(4)
By Poe giving the reader the thoughts running through the man?s head in such a strange way keeps the reader interested to see just what else the man is going to think about. In making lots of the lines parallel Poe can make the sentences shorter because they get to the point faster. The sentence structure Poe uses contributes a lot to the final feeling of horror to the reader because it is so suspenseful.
The individual words, otherwise known as the diction, that Poe uses during ?The Tell-Tale Heart? gives the person who reads the story the dreadful feeling of horror right down to the single words. When Poe writes, ?all a dull blue with a hideous veil??(2). The word hideous just pops out and gives negative feeling about the veil. When Poe uses such negative and vivid words it sends chills amongst the readers and makes them want to read more. The narrator describes, ? with its [the terrors] dreadful echo?(2). When something like an echo is being describe as something dreadful contributes the fact that the situation is frightening. The way Poe chooses his words to describe the smallest ideas directs the mood to what it is.
If this story was not so vivid and detailed the readers would not be able to form the frightening images that Poe is wanting. The image of the narrator is formed:
No doubt I now grew VERY pale, but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound [of the heart] increased-- and what could I do? [next page]