Explain How Does Edgar Allan Poe Create Tension In The Tell Tale Heart

How does Edgar Allan Poe create atmosphere and build tension in The Tell Tale Heart? The Tell Tale Heart is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, the story is written using the ‘gothic’ style language and fits into this genre because Poe builds up the atmosphere, suspense and tension this way, the story is set at night in a house, the gothic style contributes to the readers mind and reaction of tension in several different ways, Poe uses a narrator to tell the story and who murders an old man that he is living with because he did not like his eye and believed it was an ‘evil eye’. Firstly the plot of the story conveys the horror and tension because Poe has included a murder and that is a big part of the gothic genre and also has included darkness this
Throughout the story, Poe repeats certain words. This helps emphasize the thought process of the narrator. He often says "very, very" when recounting events. The effect of repetition also indicates the "acuteness of his senses" ­ that is, his great sensitivity to everything going around him. This sensitivity, in turn, is what causes him to be so irritated by the old man's eye. it is not only just a repetition of certain words, but also a repetition in sentence structure, for example ‘I moved it slowly ­ very, very slowly’ the repetition emphasises the atmosphere and tension. Poe also increases the pace by using a caesura at the end when the narrator was pacing around trying to hide the crime
‘I foamed ­ I raved ­ I swore!’ this adds to the effect of increasing pace in the story and creating atmosphere in the climax at the end. Also poe uses a multi­clausal which shows that the narrator was losing his mind. Lastly, the mood and atmosphere is effective because poe uses short sentences throughout the story like ‘the hinges creaked’ when the narrator is entering the