How Does Edgar Allan Poe Use Fear In The Tell Tale Heart

Has a story or book ever made you feel a certain way? Has it ever been so cringe-worthy to the point where you are not sure if you should stop or follow your curiosity and keep reading? The reader of, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allen Poe might feel in that way when reading it. The story is about a murder watching his victim through the night. Eventually, he builds up the nerve to end kill the poor old man. Throughout the story, Poe builds up dread and fear. The author uses the characters, suspense, and violence in multiple different parts of the story to contribute to these feelings.

Edgar Allan Poe uses the characters to create fear and dread throughout this story. The first character, the narrator, includes fear because of his voice,

how precise he is, and his insanity. Poe has this character repeat phrases often.

He commonly says that he is not crazy, making the reader question if he is or not. Because he creeps on the old man for eight nights, the reader can tell he is precise. Every night, he opens the door and moves ever so slowly to just peak his head into the room. Through this all, the narrator still claims he is not crazy. The murder was his “proof”. He says, “If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body” (Poe 305). The murder is so genius and thorough that he cannot be crazy, he believes. As a reader, that is meant to create an uneasy and confused feeling. It might leave them thinking, how could a murderer not be crazy? The next character that the author uses as a prop to play out fear is the old man. The reader knows he will die ever since the beginning of the story, so when Poe creates a clueless character, the reader has to wait in suspense. The narrator suggests that he is “extra” nice to him the week before he plans to kill the old man. The old man to has a

“voucher eye,” the narrator clearly tells the reader. The eye is a reason of fear from the murderer. He is terrified of it himself, so it contributes to the reason of the murder. Sometimes, humans are able to sense something is not right. This is how the old man begins to feel towards the end of his days. “His fear had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy to causeless, but he could not” (Poe 304). When the old man wakes up during the night, it causes not only him, but also the reader, to feel uneasy about the upcoming events. The dread and suspense only builds up more.
Suspense is another feeling felt by the reader of “The Tell-Tale Heart.” It helps contribute to the ultimate feelings of dread and fear.

Poe uses foreshadowing and tension to create suspense. In general, the beginning of the story foreshadows something bad is to happen by the end of it. The reader can assume the narrator will do something wicked when he says, “Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all the things in the heaven and in the Earth. I heard many things in hell” (Poe 303). When the narrator repeatedly talks about how much he hates the old man’s “voucher eye,” it foreshows that he is going to do something about it. The narrator becomes obsessed with the idea that the eye stalks him. Since the reader can assume he is insane, he or she might think that the narrator will do something bad to take care of the eye for good. By the end of the story, the narrator claims to hear a heart beat. It ticks and ticks and gets louder inside of his head. It helps the reader predict that soon it would get so loud to where he will eventually burst. It drives him to the point of cracking, and he confesses his crime to the police. Another way Poe plays out suspense is through tension. When the reader takes a look into the scene where the narrator slowly opens the door every night and spies on the old man, they can tell the scenes purpose is to build up to the big tension moment. The narrator watches him from the doorway, nervous. Finally, when the door is opened decently

far, the old man wakes up. This scene causes tension and suspense from the reader’s point of view. When the police knock on the door, the reader cannot help feel nervous. One can only wonder if the murder will be caught or not. The way he goes about talking to the police, acting innocent, stirs the pot as well. The arrogance within the narrator causes an immense amount of tension. The narrator says, “I smiled, -for what had I to fear?” (Poe 306). He is so confident in his crime; he sits the police right above the spot where the chopped body is placed. The reader can tell that he thinks he is going get away with this “masterpiece” of a murder. It is too bad for him, because his arrogance will be proven wrong.
By using the scenes of the murder and the body disposal, Poe generates violence in his story. The way he describes how the narrator disposes of the body easily portrays violence. The narrator says, “First if all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs” (Poe 305). The visual of anyone being that gruesome to dead body is sickening and immoral. The quote leaves the reader in disgust, wondering who in their right mind would want to chop up a body. More dread builds up when the narrator proceeds to tell to the reader that he strategically places the body, which was in many pieces, below three floorboards in the room. The reader also learns that no mess was left behind. The narrator boasts about how he left no stains or spots. He makes it seem like the murder was almost too easy to do. The actual way the murder took place definitely reveals violence as well. When the narrator enters the room, he violently throws the lantern that he is holding and runs into the room to attack the old man. More acts of aggression follow behind that. The old man is soon thrown to the floor and squished under a bed until he becomes “stone dead,” a violent observation made by the murderer. If the murder is not enough, the narrator also mentions, “I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation” (Poe 305). He just looks at it, the cold, dead body. Although it is not a violent move, it is something that only someone with a violent personality is able to successfully do. Waiting around to make sure someone’s beating heart comes to an end seems like a dreadful task, but apparently not for the narrator.
The characters, suspense, and violence are shown often throughout the story. Poe uses these aspects in many different ways in the story to portray fear and dread. It is shown in almost every part of the story. Edgar Allen Poe’s writings were recognized as only dark and depressing in his time, but now some of his pieces are known as literary masterpieces. Did Poe write the stories to have a deeper meaning behind them? Or was he writing just a dark and fearful story like people assumed?