Elliot took each step with precaution, as a weird irking feeling started to set into the bottom of his stomach. A long, crooked staircase was all he managed to see in the darkness of the cellar. Why he decided to go there, no clue. Elliot continued and soon enough, a shadow lurked over him like a thief in the night. In an instant, the boy mysteriously vanished. Whether it be Sherlock Holmes or Poe himself the mystery genre has always lured in its audience with astonishing, yet eerie details. Even though nobody can question the success of the works of these authors it is still easy to ask what made these works so successful. Even if you are remotely familiar with the literary world, we all know …show more content…
Edgar Allan Poe is a perfect example of this. As it states in “The Cask of Amontillado” “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge”(Poe 233). This statement conveys the emotions of Montresor, and it claims that Fortunato has hurt him many times, but Montresor makes a promise to himself to get revenge. Right off the bat, Poe starts off his story with a literary device. He manages to obtain the reader’s attention and keep it with a single sentence. Poe uses this hyperbole to show exaggeration. It adds a sense of mystery that leaves the readers wondering what Fortunato did to Montresor that makes it feel like a “thousand injuries”. In just one sentence Poe conveys many different messages. In conclusion, every sentence counts and Edgar Allan Poe starts his story off strong, with the help of a literary device. Another example is towards the end in the last paragraph of “The Cask of Amontillado” . You always want to end a story with a strong ending and Poe does this by ending with an allusion. For example, it states “There came forth in return only a jingling of the bells” (Poe 239) This refers to the practice of ringing a bell when somebody dies so, it is an allusion that the bells of Fortunato’s hat ring when he dies. Poe is an expert at using literary devices to his