How does Edgar Allan Poe keep the reader in suspense in The Tell-Tale Heart?
Point of view is important to any story, because it can help create the mood, and setting of a piece. “The Tell- Tale Heart” is a good example of this. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” Poe uses first person point of view to create suspense and tension, while letting the reader try to discover the thoughts of the narrator. Throughout the story, Poe is careful how he portrays his words. The way he does portray them creates a sense of suspense that makes you feel as if you are observing the whole event, frame by frame. In this story, Poe states “For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down” (63). In this example his words are described in such vivid detail that you picture this scene perfectly. Another example includes when Poe uses such phrases as, “It was open-wide, wide open-and I grew furious as I gazed upon it” (63). The use of repetition in first person point of view helps to stir some emotions of the unknown. It creates the suspense of not knowi
