Poe :: essays research papers

What is the total effect of a story? The total effect of a storyis the specific response an author expects to get from his/her readers. In"The Tell-Tale Heart," by Edgar Allen Poe, is complete and total horror.The setting, plot, character and even point of view contribute to thistotal effect of horror.The setting contributes to this total effect in some(prenominal) differentways. All of the shudders in the house were closed, so no virtuoso could curbanything from the outside in or the inside out. This was scary because noone ever knew what went on in that house except the old man with thegoogily eye and the murderer. The house was old and creaky, and, during themidnight hours, was pitch black. This creaky old house is a classic forhorror stories and films, so it definitely adds to the total effect.The plot also gives that same feeling of horror. The way themurderer watched the old man night later night, for hours at a time. Yougot the total effect of horror when he flippe d the bed onto the old man,and then chopped him into little tiny pieces and hid him the floorboards.Then the police came to see about a scream that was reported earlier. Theman led them through the house, claiming that the old man was out of townfor a art object. He finally sit down in the exact spot where the old man hadbeen buried under the floorboards. What eventually made the man confess towhat he had done when he imagined that he heard the old mans heart beatingfrom under the floorboards. It got louder and louder until finally hethought they(the officers)were just driving him insane and they heard theheart to and they must have heard it until he just jumped up, ripped offthe floorboards and said "I did it, I killed him," pointing at the piecesof the man.Characterization is the biggest part of the total effect of horror.The man seemed typical enough, except for the fact that the old mans"vulture eye" made a little crazy. He was very normal, until the "eye& quotdrove him to stalking the man while he was asleep, and then finally killedhim. At the beginning of the story, or the end, whichever you would liketo call it, it was the beginning, and the end, he kept saying "IM NOTMAD," it was sort of, well, a psycho thing to say after chopping someoneinto little pieces and hiding them in the floorboards, that kind of told