The Elements of Suspense

1. The Elements of Suspense

2. Plot Character Setting Dialogue Narrative All Stories Contain Certain Elements

3. Suspense Anxiety or apprehension resulting from an uncertain, undecided, or mysterious situation Dictionary.com

4. In suspense there must be an unknown; a suspicion, a mystery, a danger we expect

5. Suspense(mystery, intrigue, tension)is built with: • Facts • Innuendo • Atmosphere • Action

6. Ways to deepen suspense… Dreams • foreshadowing what may happen • showing the character’sdeepest fears, his haunting past

7. 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

8. Ways to deepen suspense… The Weather • the season can match or contrast the characters’ emotional state

9. 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

10. Ways to deepen suspense… The Villain • his/her motivations or intentions • simple greed, jealousy, money • the complicated serial killer mind

11. Ways to deepen suspense… Other characters • plant red herrings • shift suspicion onto them

12. 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

13. 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

14. The Nightmarish Mind of Edgar Allen Poe

15. 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

16. 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 into debt

17. 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 oppresses his heroes and heroines

18. Poe’s Characters • Many of his characters are filled with madness • Obsessed with the irrational side of the mind

19. Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale H E A R T

20. 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.

21. 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 paranoia for the reader that mirrors the feelings of the narrator

22. Literary Focus • Point of View • The 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 stories, Poe does not name the narrator.

23. 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 defeated by a noise that may be interpreted as the beating of his own heart

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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 condition found in several various Poe stories 

27. Character Analysis Character Analysis • The Old Man: • Neighbor: • Three Policemen: Seemingly harmless elder who has a hideous "evil eye" that unnerves the narrator.  Person who hears a shriek coming from the house of the narrator and the old man, then reports it to the police.  Officers who search the narrator's house after a neighbor reports hearing a shriek.