How Does Poe Create Tension In The Pit And The Pendulum

Edgar Allan Poe is a master of creating tension in his stories to convince the reader that they are a part of the story. Poe’s stories contain darkness, physical torment, tension, and keeps the readers intrigue. An example of that is in Poe’s story “The Pit and the Pendulum” and the tension throughout the story is based on whether the narrator will survive the horrors of his imprisonment. Poe depiction of tension in the story is from strong diction and the emotion of horror evoke. The use of diction in the short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” seized the reader's attention from the aspect of horror and darkness.
“Down -- steadily down it crept… Down -- certainly, relentlessly down!” (Poe 1) a quote from “The Pit and the Pendulum” the word “down” repeats four times in the quote to emphasize the pendulum’s movement moving closer to the tied-down narrator. The word “down” brings tension into the story by creating feelings of terror to the reader’s every time the word “down” is used the narrator gets closer to death. …show more content…
The author, Edgar Allan Poe, uses diction to create tension and build fear in the story of whether the narrator will survive the pendulum. Poe used tension to describe the pendulum moving down and getting closer to the narrator. The diction helped create the tension in the story because diction has the power to create intense emotion. The words “down”, “I”, etc. enables Poe to complete his objective of the “single effect” of tension. Poe used the “single effect” of tension to make the readers feel anticipation from the suspense of the outcome of the plot. In addition, the diction that Poe used in “The Pit and the Pendulum” influenced the the tension and suspense causing the “single effect”. Overall, diction and tension, create a story where readers become compelled by the story, but the true mastermind behind the tension and horror so the story is Edgar Allan