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Sophia Grzywacz

Mrs. Davenport

English H.

11 October 2016

Creating Suspense With Literary Devices

Suspense is an anxious feeling of wanting to know what may happen next. Have

you ever read a book or short story with suspense that pulled you in to its little trap

making your sit on edge until you found out what happened next? Suspense is a creative

tool that many authors use to attract readers. Authors like Edgar Allen Poe, Richard

Connell, Frank R. Stockton, just to name a few, are remarkable at creating suspense in

their short stories, Tell-Tale Heart, The Lady, or the Tiger? and And Then There Were

None. With many different literary devices such as imagery, mood, timing,

foreshadowing, point of view, etc. these stories create exciting tales.

The Tell-Tale Heart written by Edgar Allen Poe, known for his dark and

suspenseful works, is about a mans lust to kill another man because of his vulture eye.

He uses enthralling words and imagery to create his suspense. For it was not the old man

I felt I had to kill; it was the eye, his Evil Eye. (Pg. 2) The author describes the eye of an

innocent man as evil. This leaves the readers wondering how an eye can be evil. The

eye is described as an eye of an appalling bird that waits for an animal to die so that it can

rip it to shreds. The timing had come! I rushed into the room, crying, Die! Die! The

old man gave a loud cry of fear as I fell upon him and held the bedcovers tightly over his

head. Still his heart was beating; but I smiled that success was near. (Poe, 2) Edgar Allen

Poes words are penetrating and create an intense and shady mood for the story.
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Frank R. Stocksons The Lady, or the Tiger? Is full of anticipation. the

accused person was instantly punished if he found himself guilty, and, if innocent, he was

rewarded on the spot, whether he liked it or not. There was no escape from the Kings

arena. (Stockson, 2) Stockson sets suspense with timing by using the first half of the story

to build up the scene and uses suspense by keeping the audience from the answer for the

rest of the story. The author uses a lot of Pacing. Without the slightest hesitation, he

went to the door on the right, and opened it. Now, the point of the story is this: Did the

tiger come out of that door, or did the lady? (Stockton, 3) At the most suspenseful part

of the story when the prince opens the door to his fate, the author interrupts the story to

explain the princes possible fate. He then carries on the suspense by talking of the

possible outcomes for what the character choose. Then, instead of finishing the story with

telling us what happened to the prince, the author tells the readers to choose the ending.

The timing he uses is crucial to the technique he is using to create the suspense. Frank R.

Stockson is an amazing author for suspense.

Another amazing suspense author is Agatha Christie. One of her astonishing

suspense books is And Then There Were None. Christie uses several methods to build

suspense. One of the literary terms she uses is foreshadowing. Theres only eight, sir!

(Christie, 106) When all of the toy soldiers disappear like the people on the island, each

missing soldier symbolizes a missing/ dead person on the island. The poem that hangs in

each room foreshadows how each character dies. Agatha Christie also uses a lot of detail,

which helps the audience see how everything thing is to be portrayed. Why did I never

see his face properly before? A wolf-thats what it is-a wolfs face Those horrible

teeth (Christie, 262) In the book, some of the characters point of view is inserted for
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the booklover's benefit. The audience can see into the characters minds and then they

can see the way they think. Some of the characters are terrified, some are sneaky, and

some are delusional. This foreshadows what their future actions may be. Agatha Christie

is one of the best if not the best author for suspense.

In conclusion, authors use suspense to draw readers in. They use many different

techniques, such as imagery, timing, mood, foreshadowing, etc. With all of those literary

terms combined a thrilling story is created for the pleasure of readers.

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Work Cited Page

Christie, Agatha. And Then There Were None. New York City, HarperCollins Publishers,

2015

Poe, Edgar Allen. The Tell-Tale Heart. Editor Not Identified, Publisher Not Identified.

Stockton, Frank R. The Lady, or the Tiger?. Editor Not Identified, Publisher Not

Identified.