“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe expresses the main character’s feelings of fear, madness, and how crazy his mind is. The narrator starts by describing this character as if his mind is completely sane, making readers believe he had a valid reasons for what he did, but contrary to the narrator’s words, the character’s actions showed a different side of his “sanity.”
In this short story Edgar Allan Poe uses several literary devices including symbolism when he uses “vulture eye” in order to describe the insanity in the old man’s eye and the fear it projected to the main character. Another literary device is repetition as the main character uses a lot of the same words to specify his fear of the old man. He uses “louder, louder!” referring to the old man’s heart beating as he gets closer to him, demonstrating fear towards committing an act of violence. Lastly, he uses imagery and sound when the heart keeps pounding louder and harder causing the readers to actually feel present and feel the heartbeat.
I enjoyed reading this short story because it hooked me from the beginning due to its intense imagery and narration. It was a dark and entertaining read for someone who likes dark movies and shows it made me feel connected right away. Also, the fact that the story started by making the readers understand and feel bad for the character even though readers didn’t know the plot yet makes it a good hook because the short story turns out to show readers a different side of the main character.
I would highly recommend this short story to any reader because it’s a good way to analyze writing styles, character usage, and understand how to hook the readers when writing short stories. The entire time I was reading it I was hooked and nervous about what the outcome was going to be. At some point I imagined that the main character did something wrong but didn’t want to assume. By the end of the short story I had forgotten what I thought was going to happen because of the hook. Edgar Allan Poe really is a master of short stories.
Get the story! The “Tell-Tale Heart” is included in many collections of stories and other writings by Edgar Allan Poe, including The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, and Poetry and Tales at BMCC’s library, as well as at Project Gutenberg, where you can read or download The Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Volume 2.
About the author This review is by an anonymous student.
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