Language Edgar Allan Poe uses to Create Atmosphere and...

Show how Edgar Allan Poe uses language to create atmosphere and describe the state of mind of the murderer. Consider how the modern reader might respond to this story. In this essay I will discuss the which language techniques Poe uses to create atmosphere and suspence. I will also show how he allows us to get into the mind of the murder and how he conveys his state of mind. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is the story of a man who decides to murder the old man he is living with. There is no apparent reason for this other than the old man’s eye which ‘resembled that of a vulture’. In the end he is driven mad by guilt and confesses to the murder. I think that this story was perfect for the time in Europe due to the 19th century†¦show more content†¦This is a very clever technique as it allows the reader to understand exactly what the murderer is doing at all times. I think that if the story was told in the third person it would make it a lot harder to follow. The murderer is also made to seem very obsessive, this makes his claims of sanity less and less belivable as the story progresses. His obsession with the murder of the old man becomes apparent when he claims how it ‘haunted me day and night’. This obsession makes the murderer seem very intense and it helps to increase the atmosphere even more. At this stage Poe continues to use short sentences and a lot of punctuation to increase tension. Poe makes the murderer especially calm when he goes about murdering the old man, this makes him seem very disturbing as it shows how premeditated and serious the murder is. Also, the fact that the murderer is moving so slowly increases atmosphere and tension. Poe uses repetion of ‘very, very slowly’ to increase the suspence and to give the scene a sinister atmosphere. He uses this technique a lot during the story mostly to increase tension, however sometimes he uses it to slow down the pace of the story. 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