The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe - Essay Example

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” has for decades remained his most famousshort story due proper use of writing techniques. For instance, suspense is a stylistic device that makes the reader craves for more information (Bloom 42). In the tale, Poe uses suspense to make the narration interesting. In his descriptions, Poe uses simple language to describe characters in his story. The characters of the story have scary features, but the writer uses suspense and other literal stylistic devices such repetition and figurative language to paint his characters. The writer of the tale use repetition as a writing technique to stress his points. For example, he says that he moved the lantern very, very slowly to show the reader how the action took place. The use of repetition makes the story interesting. Creating emotion is very important in any literal work. In the tale, the writer created so many emotions as he narrated the tale. The writer of the tale was able to manipulate reader’s emotions using his words. For example, he says “…..his eye! …..it was this!” moves the emotion of the reader to the event in point (Poe 20). As one reads the story, each line of the story creates new moods. The major character in the story has scary features, which Poe describes tactfully. The language of the story is simple, but has a lot of weight. The Poe describes the ill intention of the writer using figurative language thus defusing the weight of the matter. He says, “He decided to take his life” (Poe23). This statement has a lot of weight, but the use of figurative language does not seem stress the impact of the line. For instance, if the line read to kill, then it would illustrate cruelty of the narrator. That language covers the circumstantial impact of the intended action. When one thinks about death, it brings sorrow, yet in this instance, the narrator intended to find peace by killing. Poe’s intention was to cover the intention of the main character at the beginning of the story. In the tale, Poe uses similes to talk about his characters. For instance, he describes the atmosphere within the room by saying that “the room was as black as pitch”. The use of simile in the sense portrays the environment or the mood at that time. Black is symbolic to doom which the writer intended the reader to see. Other than symbolism, simile as used by Poe makes the story interesting. Continuous sentences would be boring to the reader. Changing the mood of the story requires a tactful approach as portrayed in the tale. For instance, when changing the mood in the story Poe uses repetition to introduce an event that creates suspense to the reader. This approach makes the story interesting to reader. The following example, as used in the tale, illustrates the use of repetitive words to change the mood in the story. “…yes ….stone, stone dead” (Poe 48). The use of the word yes portrays a different mood from far from death. It does not appear in through first instance that the situation is gloomy. The tale has numerous hyphens, which Poe uses to illustrate the mind of the narrator. It is evident that the intention of the writer was ill, but Poe uses hyphens to cover this ill intention. Removal of hyphens in the tale would prematurely introduce the intentions of characters in the story. The tale has exclamation marks, which stresses the wickedness of the character. The reader would exclaim when he or she sees the marks in the story. The marks also help the reader to feel the gravity of the information in the tale. The use of punctuation in the tale helps the reader to imitate the ideas or read the mind of the narrator. In many instances, the narrator stops his actions using punctuation marks. The use of comma in the story is quite evident. From the punctuation marks, the reader is able to identify psychotic tendencies of the narrator immediately. This is illustrated from the beginning of the story. The reader is also able to use the punctuation marks to identify or characterize the narrator. Evidently, the narrator appears to be unreliable. Frequent use of suspense by the narrator indicates his unreliability in the tale. Narrator is the main character in the tale and his unreliability raises the questions about his motives. The language use in the tale helps in characterization. Poe’s language illustrates the unrealistic representation of the nervous behavior of the main character (Bloom 42). The narrator projects unrealistic events in the tale which are vividly portrayed through the constant varied punctuation i.e. use of commas, hyphen, exclamation mark and question marks. In the tale, it observable, that the narrator uses hyphens and commas to stress his mental condition. The reader remains wondering whether sane people are able to provide clear information or it was pretence on the part of the character. Another notable language of the tale is the use of dramatic language to illustrate deep feelings in the tale. For instance, the dramatic opening statement attracts the attention of the reader in the first glance of the tale. Further, the narrator repeats similar language and interjects some lines by using suspense to keep the story interesting. As the story unfolds, the reader is also able to sense guilt and murder in the words of narrator. The narrator is conscious about the impending act that he has conceived in his mind. The language used by the narrator helps the reader to understand and paint the dark side of human kind. Poe is able to deal with psychological realism by painting the narrator fighting for his sanity. The question raised by the narrator in the tale clearly portrays the psychological war the narrator fought. Poe was able to weave sadness, which is one of the themes in the main story by nervousness. Largely, the tale portrays the narrator in most cases as nervous, yet it is sad that he had an ill intention. This language approach makes the story a bit bearable to the reader. At the end of the tale, the reader is able to contemplate the constant nervousness, stress, and meltdown, which occurs in almost every line of the story. The sentence structures in the tale differ, partly to express the mood and stress the intention of the narrator (Poe 2). For instance, Poe uses long sentences to give adequate description of the events in the tale. At the same time, he allows the use of short sentences that brings ambiguity. Poe is also able to construct his piece, which reflects the chaotic mind of the narrator with a miniature puzzles of words. The tale reveals neither the name of the narrator nor the name of the reader (Thompson 45). In this sense, Poe was able to seal the identity of the characters. At the same time, the intensity of narrator’s madness increases when the tone in tale increases. The variation of language gives clear change in the narrator’s mood. The reader is able to establish the type of character used in the story. The change of the narrators move indicates to the reader that the characters in the tale are not fictitious. Poe was also able to use language skills in stressing the theme of the tale, murder. The narrator uses figures of speech to stress the theme of the story. In conclusion, Poe uses various language techniques to stress the theme of death in the story. From the beginning of the tale, Poe weaves his words to introduce his narrator’s ill intention in simple manner. The mood of the tale changes with the use of suspense and short sentences. Further, Poe uses hyphens, commas, exclamation marks to project the mood of the tale. The use of figurative language, simile, or metaphor makes the story interesting. Work cited Bloom, Harold. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and Other Stories. New York: InfoBase Publishing. 2009. Print. Poe, A. Edgar. The Best Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher, the Tell-tale Heart And Other Tales. Kansas: Digireads.com Publishing. 2006. Print. Poe, A. Edgar. The Tell-Tale Heart. New York: Books of Wonder. 1998. Print. Thompson, Gare & Poe, A. Edgar. The Tell-Tale Heart. New York: Benchmark Education Company. 2007. Print. Read More