Suspense Analysis Paragraph

In the story Tell Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe creates suspense in the
scene where the narrator ends up confessing that he killed the old man. First of all, Poe
keeps repeating the sound of what the narrator thought was the old mans heart . He
wrote, It grew louder- louder- lounder! ... I felt that I must scream or die!- and nowagain!- hark! louder! louder!- (pg. 87) After the investigating police had stayed for a
while, the narrator believed that he heard the old mans heartbeat coming from the dead
body which was hidden below the floorboards. Poe shows the heartbeat increasing, and
thereby adding suspense, by repeating that it gets louder, and louder. This makes the
reader want to know what happens next. Additionally, Poe makes the reader feel a
rising panic by describing the characters anxiety. The story goes, Was it possible they
heard not?- no,no!They heard!- they suspected!- they knew!- they were making a
mockery of my horror!- this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this
agony! (pg. 87) Reading a part of a story where the narrator or main character are very
anxious, makes the reader start to feel a little anxious themselves because the more the
anxiety of the character is described, the better the reader understands the importance
of the moment and the fact that something could go very wrong. Poe uses this
technique to build up suspense shortly before the narrator confesses of his crime. In the
last scene of Tell Tale Heart, Poe builds suspense once more before the narrator tells
the police that he killed the old man and the story ends.