1. An atmosphere of mystery and suspense that is enhanced by the plot, which seeks to discover the secrets lying within the supernaturally charged environment. The rhetor uses this mystery and suspense to create the horror of discovering the insanity of the narrator. The rhetor uses the supernatural such as the beating heart to develop more the suspense and the breaking point of the narrator.
2. It follows the gothic convention in portraying a character with a split personality of being angelic and diabolical. The narrator becomes a sympathetic character towards the old man as treating him well yet with the plot of killing him, which embodies an element of irony. The rhetor uses thus to manipulate this convention to contrast the good and evil. The rhetor uses this convention to create irony, and to illustrate the madness of the narrator.

4. The convention of psychological and high emotion- the narrator is highly nervous, anxious, and hysterical. The rhetor uses this to develop his anxiety, insanity and to create an emotional impact and suspense of what the narrator is capable of. Example: “TRUE! Nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why WILL you say that I am mad?” Themes- 1. The themes are death, insanity, internal chaos, and the supernatural. The narrator is insane and it leads him to murder the old man. The internal chaos of the narrator is the conflict with its guilty conscience. The supernatural is the beating heart, which is the guilty conscience of the narrator reminding him of his crime. The rhetor used incorporated these themes into the story to illustrate the internal conflict of an insane person and the perspectives it has, which leads the individual to commit a crime. Poe illustrates the mind a criminal to the audience.
2. The theme that a human being has a perverse, wicked side that lead