Horror in "The Tell-Tale Heart"
A very strong feeling of fear, shock or disgust is called horror. In "The Tell - Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe, horror plays a tremendously vital role in the execution of the tale. The reason of the murder, the procedure of killing, the dismembering of the corpse and the relentless heart-beat of the dead man are the major elements of horror in the story.
Firstly, the motive of the murder creates horror. The narrator wants to eliminate a harmless and offenceless old man simply because of his physical deformity. One of the eyes of the old man is abnormal. The narrator labels it a "vulture eye". The eye chills him to the backbone. The revulsion exceeds to such an extent that he decides to kill the old man, perhaps his master.
Secondly, the process of killing generates horror. For seven nights, the narrator goes to kill the old man. The eye being closed, he takes no action. However, on the eighth night, the old man wakes at a certain noise. After gloating over his victim's fear an hour, the protagonist lets out a ray of light at the "evil eye". The sight infuriates him. He pounces upon the old man and smothers him under bed.
Thirdly, the corpse of the old man fills us with shuddering horror. We feel near nausea when the merciless killer hacks the corpse into pieces to conceal it under the wooden planks of the floor. The horror gets intensified manifold when the conscience of the killer begins to hear the relentless throbbing of the dead man's heart getting louder and louder each moment.
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