Name : Fira Ramadani Class : ag nim : 40300121026 Summary

Analysis Suspense and Surprise in The Tell-Tale Heart
As we know that Suspense and surprise are complementary, not contradictory terms. In short story The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (1919), the suspense appear through point of view, irony, and diction. This is about unreliable the first person point of view, so it is make the reader only know the thoughts of the narrator, we are as a reader can not make sure what will the narrator do next.
In the beginning of the story, there is a sentences “how then am I mad?”, the narrators trying to make the reader believe that the man is sane. After we read a lot we found “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I kill him”. This is an irony, at first he makes me believe that the narrator is sane, but then at the sentence above its makes the reader confused is the narrator sane or insane. Because, no one sane person can kill a person, kill an old man.
Another example is when the narrators trying to kill the old man. The narrators is planning to kill the old man very soon, while the Old man is no clue that he is about to be killed, so he just sleeping in his bed, when he heard something around he is just saying to himself “it is nothing but the wind on the chimney—it is only a mouse crossing the floor”. Then when narrators saying that “to think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts”. The readers know that the narrators say that to old man, while the old man just sleeping, but the readers does not know what the old man will do. He will still sleep or he will notice that.
Next is “Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror” The narrator says that the “groan” was one of “mortal terror”. I thought It wasn't just any groan. As we now the person who was groaning was mortally terrified of what was to come.
And the story continue to “First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs”. He killed and cut the old man into pieces, in this part the readers clearly know that this person is insane.
The story says, "...for what had I to fear...for what had I to fear". This raises the tension by getting the mind to think about whether or not he'll get caught. The text also states, "...but he found it all in vain. "All in vain".
At first when the police come, he feels good, he appears normal. But when he hear a low thumping sound, the narrators recognizes the low sound as the heart of the old man, pounding away beneath the floorboards. He panics, believing that the policemen must also hear the sound and know his guilt. Driven mad by the idea that they are mocking his agony with their pleasant chatter, he confesses to the crime and shrieks at the men to rip up the floorboards.