Words and Actions Set the Atmosphere

The indistinct room was smothered by the sound of the old man’s soft breathing. His “evil” eye is cautiously closed as he sleeps and the closer the mad man gets to him, the stronger the force was to kill. Hurrying through his mind, the thoughts of the crazy man denied his idiocy of murder. The beating of the man’s heart fades into the dark the moment the man peruses his decision in this interesting story, "The Tell-Tale Heart." Edger Allen Poe writes each line of this suspenseful tale with careful thought and consideration, making each word become more of a interesting and mysterious way to explain the narrator’s feelings and actions.

The first sense of the word “murder” draws many images and settings into a reader’s mind making them realize how scary or frightened the characters feel in the story. When imagining these scenes, the background is never daylight; The aglow sun of the day is swallowed whole by midnight during a horrific time. Poe makes the setting during midnight when the man is dead asleep to make the outcome of this piece more eerie. If the setting was placed on a cloudless day with birds chirping and flying with the cool breeze, the uneasiness would disappear and that is what the author is trying to make the readers feel… uneasy. Authors pick names, settings, and time for a certain reason which is to set the atmosphere for this unforgettable tale.

Denying something so unjust, so many times, makes the reader believe that what you’re saying really isn’t true. With strong repetitiothe murderer telling the readers he is not mad (crazy), he makes the readers believe he is more mad than he wants anyon to realize.
“True!--nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed –not dulled them.” The murder speaks on page 383 trying to deny his absurdness. “Now this is the point. Your fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded –with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work!” Yes the man is smart in ways that people must recognize but he is overwhelmingly stupid to peruse in a matter because of an “evil” eye that is connected to a poor, old, innocent man. Poe writes to make people believe and feel insecure about who to trust while he’s writing to set the frightening mood of this suspenseful death.

The floorboards creak under the weight of the murderer, while hiding a crushed body. The characters rise to power is great when he is through killing the eye. The feeling of doubt never crosses his mind though when he descends the stairs, his guilt gets the best of him when he hears the beating of the man’s heart as he’s talking to the police officers. When the word “descends” comes up in a story, Poe gives readers a strong foreshadow of a abominable scene. The author writes once again wach word to unravel more of the story and for this certain part, it is guilt. The quivering of the mad man’s heart is full with nervous guilt although he thinks the beating of the heart is not his nervous one himself… it is the dead old man’s heart that is strongly beating under the rough floorboard of the house filled with two, uncertain officers.

From the floorboard to the darkness of the midnight-stricken room, the way Poe incorporates the fright and uneasiness that slowly hipes up the reader even more by each word makes this tale such a classic. The way the man is telling the story and reminding the viewers that he is not mad, also changes the mood and atmosphere of everything around the quite room. Sleeping with his “evil” eye closed, the man is unaware of the death that near haunts him though the way Poe writes makes the story sort of peaceful. Each character, item and movement in a book makes the story more suspenseful, cheerful, or more horrific and reader’s should recognize that Edger Allen Poe has a strong act for that in the short story, The Tell-Tale Heart.