Mystery through Death, Horror and Madness in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell – Tale Heart”

Abstract

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format.This format tends to bemore pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novels. The short story is themost recent of all literary forms. It is the only mode in which American writers were privileged to participate from the very beginning. Short story as a literary form is a form developed in the nineteenth century.The American writer Edgar Allan Poe is the first to use the term ‘short story’ to describe his collection of prose narratives which was usually known as a ‘tale.’ The early American writer Washington Irving saw his own early tales as pictorial representations of places and events, and called them ‘sketches.’ Both the 'sketch' and 'tale' have been absorbed into our modern concept of the short story. Early innovationsin the genre appeared in the short fictional proseof such writers as Prosper Merimee. Edgar Mystery fiction has since become one of the most popular of the literary genres. Mystery fiction is a genre in literature that focuses on someone solving a puzzle or a crime. It is also commonly referred to as crime fiction or detective fiction. The genre includes novels and short stories that are written for a special kind of audience, because people who read mysteries expect the standard rules for the genre. The standard rules are: a realistic, yet suspenseful plot with a lot of twists; a shocking, yet realistic crime; foreshadowing evidence; false leads; a clear crime solver; the protagonist or detective; an unexpected villain, criminal, or culprit; The mystery remains a suspense until the very last minute andfor the most part things will revealonly in the end.