Tension is a component in a novel that brings out feelings, for example, stress, anxiety , fear, and uneasiness to the reader and characters of the story. Edgar Allen Poe and Shirley Jackson do a great job in building tension in The Cask of Amontillado and The Lottery. From the very beginning of the story to the very end these two authors have created excellent tension. In the beginning of The Cask of the Amontillado the narrator begins by saying " The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge." (pg.14) As the reader we want to know what Fortunato did to cause Montersor's plot revenge. Poe uses sparse and harmless details without giving us clarification or reason, and this creates tension. Shirley builds tension right off the bat as well. She opens the story with a beautiful summer day in June "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was rich and green." (pg.255) By starting her story with such a warm and cozy opening , it completely diverts you from suspense and tension. On the same token it gives her time to create more tension as the story goes takes way. Another way that Poe and Jackson build tension is by using painful pacing meaning they both take a long time to build up to the climax. Shirley does this by making us start to wonder what kind of lottery this actually is." Mr. Graves opened the slip of paper and there was a general sigh through the crowd as he held it up and everyone could see that it was blank."(pg.262) Now I was starting to wonder what kind of lottery this actually was, clearly winning this lottery doesn't have any positive aspects to it. We don't find out till the very end what kind of lottery this is. By Jackson giving us these subtle hints about the lottery, it builds