To be honest I don't think there is much decreasing in
tension in this short story - it gradually raises the tension until it reaches fever
pitch at the very end as the narrator declares himself for who he really is and the
terrible crime he has committed.
From the very first
paragraph, that makes it clear we are presented with an unreliable narrator, we are
plunged into a scary world of imminent violence and madness. Every paragraph raises the
tension another notch as we wonder what the narrator will do and then think about what
will happen in consequence of his actions. Consider the second
paragraph:
Passion was there none. I loved the old man. He
had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. It was
his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture - a pale blue eye, with a film
over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran col; and so by degrees - very gradually
- I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye
forever.
We are presented
almost at the beginning of the story with the plan of a narrator who we suspect of being
mad to cold-bloodedly kill an acquaintance for what seems to be the most ludicrous of
reasons. How he does it, the reaction of the old man and what happens afterwards only
serves to keep the tension rising in this rapid and terrifying
tale.
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