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Ky-An Dinh

Mrs. Carew

English 8H- Period 4

25 December 2019

Tone: A Writer’s Best Friend

In the spoken language, emotions are easily conveyed through the speaker. The speaker

has the advantage of facial expressions and varying tones. However, writers do not have the

luxury of visual and auditory aids. To overcome such disadvantage, they must write eloquently

in order to prevail over dull content. Practicing such craft can result in their undying prominence

in the history of literature. Case in point, famous writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe, W.W.

Jacobs, and Lucille Fletcher, utilize tone to captivate their readers. Tone is the attitude of the

writer, revealing his or her perspective and knowledge of a topic. Similarly, in the horror stories,

“The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Monkey’s Paw,” and “The Hitchhiker,” all the authors have a

unique tone to attract their readers’ attention. Through the skillful use of words, the writers of

“The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Monkey’s Paw,” and “The Hitchhiker,” effectively convey their

attitude toward his or her subject and their audience.

Foremost, Edgar Allan Poe’s tragic life was the main influence in the horror story, “The

Tell-Tale Heart.” Poe’s losses and heartaches in his personal life contributed to the invention of

detective fiction and the eloquent writing in all his stories. Initially, Poe lost his birth mother,

who died of illness. Soon after, Poe’s father abandoned his family, while his brother died due to

sickness. To add to his heartache, his beloved young wife and cousin Virginia passed away from

tuberculosis. These losses in Poe’s life influenced the dark gothic works he is prominently

known for today. To no surprise, it is evident that the tone of “The Tell-Tale Heart” is anxious.
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With a brusque introduction of himself and assurance of his “sanity,” the agitated murderer hides

a gruesome fact, which inevitably results in his confession of the crime. His first hint of anxiety

is when he states, “True! Nervous- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am! but why

will you say that I am mad?” Because the murderer anticipates that readers will accuse him of

madness, he defends himself in a rant about ridding himself from the “Evil Eye,” which displays

his perturbed state. Since the vulture eye haunts him, the murderer develops an unhealthy

obsession with the eye. His frenzied words clearly exhibit that he is on the verge of a mental

breakdown. By using repetition throughout the story, the author adds dramatic effects for the

readers to picture the murderer’s bizarre procedures. This leaves the readers rather concerned

and scared of what is about to occur. In addition, the murderer’s guilty conscience contributes to

his anxiety. After the murder of the old man, the narrator’s guilty conscience spurs anxiety

attacks, such as the sound of the old man’s heartbeat that scares him. Like a chain that shackles

the murderer from freedom, the protagonist has no choice, but to confess his crime before

succumbing to his insanity. “’Villains!’ I shrieked, ‘dissemble no more! I admit the deed…it is

the beating of his hideous heart!’” The author’s dramatic tone shows that the murderer’s

agitation overwhelms his mind in an unbearable way. As a result, the readers are shocked to

finally see the murderer lose his composure in front of the officers. Nevertheless, the murderer’s

anxious tone is not a way to hide his murder; instead, it is a process that reveals the damage of

his deteriorating mind.

As a way to escape impoverishment and a tough childhood, W.W. Jacobs wrote a

plethora of stories; hence, the prominent horror tale, “The Monkey’s Paw.” The author’s

consistent tone of foreboding unveils the dreaded twists of fate. The story commences by

describing the “stormy night” and a “father and son were at chess; the former, who possessed
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ideas about the game involving radical chances, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary

perils.” Even in the beginning, readers know that the story evokes a sense of ominousness. The

words “stormy,” “radical chances,” and “such sharp and unnecessary perils” foreshadows

unfortunate outcomes for the rest of the story. In classic stories, “stormy” means that the setting

brings an eerie and mysterious effect to the characters and the plot. Readers picture a ghostly

setting involving death and unfortunate events waiting to happen. After the second wish, Mr.

White begs his wife to not let Herbert in the house after hearing banging on the door. “’Don’t let

it in,’ cried the old man, trembling.” Knowing that the being outside the Whites’ door is a

grotesque form of Herbert, Mr. White prevents that being from causing any more heartbreak and

terror that is experienced earlier. However, Mrs. White rushes to the door to greet her son-

regardless of form- and disregards her husband’s warnings. As a result, the consistent,

reverberating knocks on the door, Mr. White’s dive for the paw, and Mrs. White’s slow opening

of the door leaves readers at a peak of suspense. Readers can feel the true pain from Mr. White

who regrets his wishes. With the remaining wish, it is no doubt that foreboding is present when

Mr. White wishes Herbert away to spare his wife of any more heartbreak.

Similar to the plot in “The Hitchhiker,” Lucille Fletcher and her husband decided to

travel from Brooklyn, New York, to Hollywood, California, after their marriage in October 1939.

Fletcher, however, saw "an odd-looking man, first on the Brooklyn Bridge and then on the

Pulaski Skyway. We never saw him again. However, I didn't quite know what to do with the

idea until a year later, when … I conceived the idea of doing it as a ghost story." Like Fletcher’s

encounter of the bizarre-looking man, “The Hitchhiker” produces a sense of fear that readers

feel. The story begins with a tone of terrors from the protagonist, Ronald Adams, who

immediately describes his appearance to convince the readers that he is still alive. Readers share
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a similar feeling, since they are startled to have a detailed description of the narrator and his

words of “last night on earth.” The main reason for Adams’ fear is the hitchhiker, which

symbolizes death. Though Adams initially disregards the hitchhiker, this nondescript figure

follows and haunts him throughout his trip from Brooklyn, New York to Hollywood, California.

The consistent appearance for the same being causes Adams to rave on that “for now, he began

to appear everywhere.” For instance, Adams pleads to a nearby storekeeper about the sinister

hitchhiker after their interaction. “Just a minute ago there was a man standing here, right beside

this stand- a suspicious looking man.” Adams shows that he is desperate to find any help to

escape from this cat-and-dog chase. His fear also shrouds his main goal and replaces it with a

mere escape from the dreaded hitchhiker. Especially when he is left stalling on train tracks after

attempting to run down the hitchhiker, Adams immediately blames the hitchhiker for his near

death experience. “The train was coming closer…. Now I knew that he was beckoning –

beckoning me to my death.” Adams’ fear completely changes his perspective to the hitchhiker;

though it was a mere coincidence that Adams’s car was not working in the hitchhiker’s presence,

Adams refuses this and attributes painful death to the hitchhiker. Adams now thinks that the

hitchhiker is a being who terrorizes Adams for the rest of his trip- or worse, for his the rest of his

life. Readers are able to feel this powerful emotion control Adams, who simply wants to travel to

California. Thus, his extreme fear transforms Adams as a hamster running in an endless circle

from a being he cannot stop.

In conclusion, these horror genre authors utilize their tones effectively to produce classic

literature. The tones of anxiety, foreboding, and fear complement the unique plot each author

creates. With “The Tell-Tale Heart,” readers experience the unique perspective of an anxious

murderer who explicitly justifies his act, but is defeated by his nervousness and guilty
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conscience. W.W. Jacobs gives a classic, foreboding tale of three wishes from an infamous

monkey’s paw, which readers are surprised in some parts. Inspired by her own bizarre trip,

Lucille Fletcher’s “The Hitchhiker” produces a sense of fear that sends chills to her readers.

Through the skillful use of words, the writers of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Monkey’s Paw,”

and “The Hitchhiker,” effectively convey their attitude toward his or her subject and audience.

Although these authors use different tones, this rhetorical device gave them similar benefits: an

ensured spot in the respected, famous works of American literature.