How Does Edgar Allan Poe Use Figurative Language In The Tell Tale Heart

There are many writing techniques/crafts that authors write about in their story. For example, stories could have metaphors, flashbacks/flash forwards, or tone. But, in the story The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism, revealing actions, and descriptive language to show why the narrator wants to kill the old man.

In “The Tell Tale Heart”, by Edgar Allen Poe, the reader is presented with the short story of a madman who narrates his murder of an old man because, “he had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it” (Poe 105). The narrator has thought thoroughly about his plan to murder this old man, and the murderer then stashes his body underneath the floorboards. Eventually, his guilt overcomes him and he starts hallucinating that he hears the old man’s heartbeat. Ultimately, he confesses to the police about his crime after being driven to the point of insanity due to his remorse. “The Tale Tell Heart” is one of Poe’s best-known stories because he utilizes the elements of Gothic Literature to establish a disturbing sense of mystery throughout the story. Farida characterizes Gothic Literature as “the elements of fear, horror, the supernatural and darkness” (Foster 1), and Poe effectively adopts this style in many of his short story. These ominous characteristics give the story both a dark and spontaneous sequence of events that draws the reader in. In “The Tell Tale Heart,” Edgar Allen Poe employs several Gothic elements such as the setting, emotion, and the word choice in order to communicate an uncertain description of reality. In any case, Poe 's technique definitely holds your attention coming into the story.

“True! --nervous-- very, very dreadfully nervous…” Does fear lead people to do irrational things, even sufficient to commit a crime? Every year, about 18.2% of the American population suffer from mental illness which is caused by fear according to www.newsweek.com. Fear causes anxiety which is leads to mental illness. Fear can change the aura of others and may cause mental illness. Edgar Allan Poe commences the story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” with the narrator’s fear towards the old man’s “vulture” eye. The old man’s blind eye petrifies the narrator because it symbolizes a vulture’s eye, it symbolizes as an vulture’s eye because a vulture would stare down its prey with it’s eyes. The old man never wronged the narrator in any way, but the old man’s “vulture eye,” is enough reason to haunt him and that leads to him to murder the old man out of fear when haunted by the idea. In the “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe uses dramatic irony, and the narrator’s point of view to convey the abstract theme of perverseness, which leads to his fear, paranoia and symbolism.

Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story about a insane narrator which tries and eventually kills the old man, the narrator is his waiter, because of his vulture eye. In this story, readers feel curious and shock because of the dramatic and situational irony. First, Poe uses dramatic imagery to make the reader feel suspense. The mood is created when the narrator becomes determined to kill the old man because of his vulture eye, thus the reader knows the narrator wants to kill the old man, but the old man doesn’t know about it. ”I made up my mind to take the life of the old man” (Poe ) This make the reader feel suspense because it makes the reader like the old man’s hands are tied because he can’t overpower the narrator and he’s unaware of the narrator’s intention. Furthermore, Poe uses situational irony to create a mood of shock. The mood is created when the police officers knock on the old man’s door and come to investigate because of the narrators shriek, and the narrator started hearing the old man’s heartbeat, yet it grew louder and louder until he thought that the police officers are hearing the heartbeat and are mocking the narrator, so the narrator couldn’t take any more and admitted

In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe uses repetition and metaphors. Poe uses repetition to help characterize the narrator as mad. For example, the story says “...hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!” The repetition also creates suspense. Poe uses metaphors to foreshadow what will happen. For example, the story says “He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” Vultures are scavenging birds who circle around and eat dead organisms. This connection to death foreshadows that death will happen in the

Because of his constant use of imagery, Poe is able to create suspense in his writing. An excerpt from Edgar Poe’s story The Tell-Tale Heart states, “It was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe” (Poe 82). In the story, Poe uses descriptive words which can make the reader experience what is happening. “…the low, stifled sound…” gives the reader an inclination that something bad is about to happen. A part of Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart says, “It was a low, dull, quick sound—much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath—and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased” (Poe 84). Yet again, Poe has created a sense of suspense by using words one would be able to experience. “A low, dull, quick sound” is imaginable as well as a little frightening to the reader. Poe uses imagery in his stories to create suspense by involving the reader in his writing.

In The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe uses the setting and the sound of the beating heart to bring fear into the reader's mind. At the beginning we are brought into the mind of a man that lives alone with an elderly man. They live in a small house in a quiet neighborhood. Already we can picture the setting from a horror movie or horror story. The setting is also always during the night. Once the speaker goes to kill the old man, there

Poe uses symbolism, irony, and imagery to illuminate how fear can alter someone’s reality, therefore changing someone’s destiny. The story The Tell-Tale Heart shows the old man’s

For many centuries, people have had a morbid desire to explore the realms of death and darkness; As a result, death and murder became a staple in Gothic writing and a key feature in many of Poe’s stories. Additionally, death is a dominant theme in “The Tell-Tale Heart” as the narrator resolves to murder his victim because he is afraid of the old man’s eyes “resembl[ing] that of a vulture”(138). In a gruesome manner, the narrator suffocates the old man with a mattress, dismembers his body, and proceeds to hide the remains under the floorboards. In the Gothic age, one of the greatest fears was anything that threatens reason; Consequently, Poe creates this horrid murder as it highlights non-rational and transgressive behavior generating terror and suspense. Furthermore, in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Madeline’s arrives in her “violent and now final death-agonies” (40) to attack her brother, Roderick, and he dies of fear. This violent attack is frightening as Madeline’s ghostly appearance depicts the illogical and uncanny, creating an atmosphere of horror and terror. By portraying feelings of discomfort, thrill, and morbidity for his readers, Poe successfully conveys major Gothic elements in his stories.

In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, it is classified as a short story with horror fiction as the genre. This was written in three different types of fear during the Romanticism period. In this short story the encounter is filtered through the eyes of the unnamed dynamic narrator. The narrator consumes upon the old man’s eye and determines to perform a conscious act of murder. Fear is defined as a horrid feeling that is caused by a belief that a person or something is unsafe, most likely to cause grief, or any type of threat. It is something that people can first experience as children, and is accustomed to respond to in many different ways. Some people live in constant fear; of accidents, of bad people doing any harm, or of physical disorders. Others only obtain things as they come in life, whether they are good or horrible things. Edgar Allen Poe describes fear in “The Tell-Tale Heart” in three ways such as gore, the mood, and insanity.

The setting presented in this story has a very dark and gloomy atmosphere which has been used as a technique to help outline the scene. It is set in the one location; a bedroom. Poe describes the room as being “black as pitch with the thick darkness,” which deepens the effect of terror. The night setting gives the text an eerie feel as it focuses on the horrors of night time. This horror creates a noticeable impact which is recognisable when the victim cried out “who’s there?” against the backdrop of frighteningly still silence. Ultimately, the way in which Poe’s story is set builds anxiety and fear in the reader.

In the Tell Tale Heart the narrator was mad. He was plotting to kill the Old Man. The narrator checks in on the man, hoping that his “vulture eye” will be open. If it is, that will be the night of the Old Man's death. On the eighth night when the narrator snuc into his room… Due to a few mistakes the old man awoken. Therefore the evil eye was open. Poe used the common fear of the unknown in the old man to make him scared. Every human has these common fears. They are written in our DNA. They are part of our fight or flight function. Because we have these fears it makes us feel like we are almost living in the room as the Old Man. Also these fears are a big part of why we still read these stories and get scared.

own chamber. In Edgar Allan Poe’s Tell Tale Heart, the story of this murder is told from the point of view of the killer. The narrator tells of the man’s vulture-like eye, which causes him to murder the man to rid himself forever of the villainy the eye possessed. After the murder, the narrator is haunted by the sound of the man’s beating heart to the point that he has to admit to his felony. In this ghastly tale, the narrator is guilty of premeditated murder because he had a reason to kill the man, knew right from wrong throughout the story, and had a plan to kill the old man in advance.

“The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allan Poe, is a petrifying short story. Poe incorporated a variety of literary elements to intimidate the reader. Personification, theme, and symbols are combined to create a suspenseful horror story.

In “The Tell Tale Heart”, three characteristics of horror stand out: suspense, hubris, and an unreliable narrator. The first big element in the story is hubris. The narrator states, “But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work!” (Poe 89,90). The narrator was proud of how well he was able to commit the murder and hide it from the outside world. But then when the police came, he got extremely paranoid and started hearing the heartbeat of the man and somehow confessed the murder. "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!" (Poe 94). Another important element in this story is suspense. He said that he was going to kill the man, but he had to wait for the perfect moment to do so. He wanted to see the eye to get him mad so he could actually commit the murder but it took him eight suspenseful days to actually find the eye open. The whole