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The Source Of Horror In The Tell Tale Heart

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“Sometimes I'm terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants. The way it stops and starts.” is a famous quote by the famous horror author Edward Allan Poe. A horror story needs several horrifying elements. It needs a scary setting, a great deal of suspension, and a creepy source of horror. The “Tell- Tale Heart” by Edward Allan Poe has all of these. In the story a old man has been given a crazy caregiver. The insane man believes that one of the old man's eyes is stalking him. He is so convinced that the eye is out to get him he makes a plan to kill the old . Even though people think that all horror stories have some sort of monster; it's not true. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a great example of this. The monsters in this story are in the characters itself. “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edward Allan Poe fits the criteria necessary to make it part of the horror genre because of the setting, suspense, and the source of horror.

The “Tell-Tale Hearts” setting makes it a perfect fit into the horror genre. In the beginning of the story the …show more content…
There are two main sources. The source of horror for the old man is the crazed caregiver. Even though the old man doesn't know about the crazy man thinking his eye is stalking him and the crazy man doesn't want him to. The crazy man says “ I went boldly into the chamber and spoke courageously to him, by name in a hearty tone, and inquired how how he had passed the night……...he would be a very profound man, indeed, to suspect at night” ( page 90) ( explanation) The demented man's horror is based off the old man's eye. The unbalanced many only kills the old man because of his eye. He says, “ it resembles a vulture, a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” He tries to thick that the eye is stalking him and is is trying to kill him. He ends up going insane and kills the old man for his eye

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