How Does Poe Create Fear In The Night

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Poe creates fear and dread in the story through the characters. For one, he shows fear through the narrator. First the narrator is insane and unreliable. The narrator is constantly saying he isn’t insane his actions say otherwise, and he contradicts himself. For example, the narrator kills the old man solely because of his eye, when a sane person could just move out or leave. “Every morning…I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he passed the night” (Poe 303). The narrator’s actions also create fear and dread. The narrator has actions that are very out of the ordinary like taking an hour to open the door or shining a sliver of light just on the old man’s eye. “I …show more content…

To start he is oblivious. The old man has no idea what is coming for him; since the narrator was so kind to him he is clueless to the fact the he was eventually going to kill him. The second reason is his eye. The old man’s eye is very unnatural and gross. “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it” (Poe 303). People dislike traits that are unnatural and so this creates a feeling of fear. Unnatural things scare people and the old man is scary because he has the eye of a vulture. Lastly the old man is innocent. The old man did nothing wrong to deserve death. The narrator kills him because of his eye. “Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye” (Poe 303). This creates fear and dread in the story because there was no reason for killing the old man other than his eye and that is something so small. Something so small changes the narrator into an insane person and pushes him to the point of killing someone. Clearly Poe creates the feeling of fear and dread in this story through the

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