In both Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and
Hitchcock's Psycho there is mounting suspense and a terrible sense
of foreboding. Suspense in Poe's story is generated as the narrator of Poe's story
"cautiously--oh, so cautiously...." opens the door to the room and shines the lantern
upon the sinister vulture eye of the old man for seven days. In
Psycho, the strange man in the uninhabited motel is accomodating to the
customer, an attractive woman; however, later, he peers through a peep hole into the
motel room where the woman who has stolen from her bank resides. Later, he is seen by
her in the upstairs of a dark, gothic house above the motel. There are shadows that pass
before the window and even an argument between the man and what appears to be an old
woman. Fears grow upon the woman and upon the narrator's victim in "The Tell-Tale
Heart" who springs up in bed, shouting "Who's there?"
On
the eighth day, Poe's narrator feels his powers. He enters the room stealthily just as
the "old mother" enters the woman's motel room. Soon both the old man and the female
victim utter groans of terror. The beating of the heart is heard by the narrator: "But
the beating grew louder and louder." This beating of the woman's heart is suggested by
the sharp, staccato of the music of the movie as Norman Bates enters dressed as his
mother and stabs the woman in the shower. In the end, both Poe's narrator and Norman
Bates completely lose their minds.
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