How Does Poe Create Fear In The Tell Tale Heart

Imagine living with someone who despises you because of your eye. That’s exactly what was happening with the old man and the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s story “Tell Tale Heart”. The “Tell Tale Heart” is about a narrator having an urge to kill the old man because of his vulgar eye, but when the deed is done, not everything goes according to plan. Poe creates fear and dread throughout the story with the charters, build up of suspense, and the explicit details.
Poe creates fear and dread within the two main characters, the narrator and the old man. He creates fear through the narrator with his voice and repetition, his insanity, and his deceitfulness. Throughout the story, the narrator has continuous small laughs to himself, mainly representing
The way he used details during the narrator killing the old man is with the explanation of the old mans room, killing him, and disposing of the body. First, when the narrator enters the room he describes it like “His room was as black as a pitch with the think darkness (for the shutters were close fastened, through fear or robbers)” (Poe 304). He also says the room was so dark the old man would not be able to see the door creeping open. Another way he uses details to create fear is with the killing of the old man. After taking an hour to open the door just enough to sneak by, it was finally time for the narrator to kill the old man. He leaped onto the old man and dragged him onto the floor and put the bed on top of him. He waited awhile until the heartbeat was gone and he was satisfied with his deed. The final way he used details is through the morbid way he dismantled the body. “I cut off the head and the arms and the legs. I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings”(Poe 305). Another way Poe uses details to create fear is with the police arriving. First, is when the police first arrived to the house, and he showed them around. “I bade them search – search well. I led them, at length, to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed” (Poe 306). He then brought chairs into the room and sat down happily to speak with the officers. After the narrator had convinced the officers of his innocence, he started to hear a ringing in his ear. He started to get a headache and his face grew pale. “It was a low, dull, quick sound – much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton” (Poe 306). With the sound of ringing taking over his thoughts, the narrator couldn’t help but confess to his crime. The narrator’s confession leads into