preview

Psychological Horror In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

Decent Essays

Horror is among the most interesting and popular genres in literature. Authors try to use a variety of objects and topics to create stories that deliver creepy experiences to readers. Because of this, psychological horror stands out as the most disturbing style of horror by driving readers through the thoughts of mentally ill people. The sub-genre would not become famous if not because of the mind of the notorious Edgar Allan Poe. One of his best work, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” demonstrated just how the author could masterfully dive into the head of a person. From the first scene of how the narrator decided to kill the old man, Poe showed how a simple object like the eyes could motivate a person to hurt others, thus warning readers about their actions to others because the actions could cost their lives. To fully communicate his message, Poe cleverly used dashes in sentences and chains of short sentences that reflected the narrator’s chaotic mind, exaggerated the influence of the eyes to the narrator that forced him to kill the old man, and made the psychopath talking to readers about his thought process.
In the first paragraph of the story, the narrator convinced his readers that he was sane. He used the dashes as means to elaborate his arguments. When the narrator defended himself that the nervousness actually “sharpened my senses,” he quickly added that it had not “destroyed” or “dulled” his sanity and he could “calmly” tell the story (Poe). Here the dashes functioned by

Get Access