The Elements of
Suspense
All Stories Contain
Certain Elements
 Plot
 Character
 Setting
Dialogue
Narrative
Suspense
Anxiety or apprehension
resulting from an uncertain,
undecided, or mysterious
situation
Dictionary.com
In suspense
there must be
an unknown;
a suspicion, a
mystery, a
danger we
expect
Suspense (mystery, intrigue, tension)
is built with:
Facts
Innuendo
Atmosphere
Action
Ways to deepen suspense…
Dreams
foreshadowing
what may happen
showing the
character’s
deepest fears, his
haunting past
Ways to deepen suspense…
Clues
journals
/ diaries /
letters / notes /
pictures, etc.
physical evidence that
can be used to
determine time of
death, how, and where
Ways to deepen
suspense…
The Weather
the
season can
match or contrast the
characters’ emotional state
Ways to deepen suspense…
The Senses
the
smell of blood, the stench of an
alley
the taste of fear
reaction to finding a dead body
the feel of blood-soaked clothing
Ways to deepen suspense…
The Villain
his/her
motivations or intentions
simple greed,
jealousy, money
the complicated
serial killer mind
Ways to deepen suspense…
Other characters
plant
red herrings
shift suspicion onto
them
Themes Concerning People





Terror inflicted upon the often unknowing and
innocent victim
Innocent people caught up in events they cannot
control
Transference of guilt: innocent character’s
failings are transferred to another character and
magnified
Explored the compatibility of men and women
(especially a mother figure)
The wrong man
Themes Concerning the Mind
Guilt (real or the
appearance of it)
 Redemption
 Early films reflected the
political climate of Europe
during the war
 Preferred to use suspense
rather than surprise

The Nightmarish Mind of
Edgar Allen Poe
Background
Born 1809-1849
 His mother died during
his youth and his father
abandoned them
 After the death of his
grandmother, he married
his 13-year-old cousin,
Virginia in 1835
 Virginia died in 1847
 Died in 1849

Education of Poe
 Entered
and
dropped from both
the University of
Virginia and West
Point
 Ran into debt and
started borrowing
money, gambling
and getting deeper
Writing Style of Poe
 Wrote
in a Gothic
Style
 Deep and intense
 Explorations of а
world of dream
and of nightmare
 In his stories the
past is darker,
more ominous and
Poe’s Characters
 Many
of his
characters are
filled with
madness
 Obsessed with
the irrational side
of the mind
Edgar Allen
Poe’s
The Tell-Tale
HEART
General Information
 Setting
 The
story opens with the narrator
telling readers that he is not mad.
His narrative is supposed to be a
vehicle to show he is not insane.
 The
story is set in a house occupied
by the narrator and an old man
during the mid 1800’s.
General Information
 Genre
Horror
story and
psychological thriller
 Story and Style
 The
Tell Tale Heart is one
of Poe’s shortest stories.
It’s lack of detail only
adds to its suspense by
creating a mood of
Literary Focus
Point
The
of View
story is told in first-person
point of view by an unreliable
narrator.
The narrator is obviously
deranged, even though he
declares at the outset that he is
sane.
As in many of his other short
Literary Focus

Irony
 The irony of the
story stems from
the narrator’s
claims of sanity
being disproved by
his own claims.
 Although he
proclaims himself to
be too calm to be a
madman, he is
Literary Focus
 Imagery
and Repetition
 Poe’s
use of sound throughout the
narrative, combined by using repetition
adds to the story’s suspense.
 The
effect is a building of noise in
the readers’ ears and a building of
tension
Themes
Mankind’s wicked side–another self
 Mankind’s paranoia
 Mankind’s Fear
 Mental Pressure and Fatigue
 Appearance vs. Reality
 Dark Appearances vs. Dark Thoughts

Character Analysis
The Narrator
Deranged unnamed
person who tries to
convince the reader that he
is sane.
He is intelligent and has
the ability to commit a crime
with skill and precision
He nagged by what he
calls heightened senses,
something that is a
Character Analysis
Character Analysis
Seemingly harmless elder
 The Old Man:
who has a hideous "evil
eye" that unnerves the
narrator.
 Neighbor:
Person who hears a
shriek coming from the
house of the narrator and
the old man, then reports
 Three Policemen: it to the police.