Literary Devices in Poe's Tell Tale Heart Literary Analysis Essay Sample

📌Category: Edgar Allan Poe, Literature, Writers
📌Words: 1044
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 21 June 2022

As Elisabeth Kubler-Ross says “guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of guilt.” According to Dosomething More than 43 million Americans struggle with mental illness. Worldwide a multitude of people struggle with mental illness, and the Narrator in “The Tell Tale Heart” is just one of many victims of mental illness or seemingly mental illness. In his short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allen Poe begins the story in the old man’s home, with the narrator, as the old man’s caretaker, and how the old man's pale blue vulture eye led him into his supposed madness and urge to kill the old man, in the climax of the story, the narrator’s sight fell upon the old man’s eye while seeking through his bedroom, enraged by the sight of the eye, he finally removes the old man, dismembering him while hiding the remains under the floorboards. The story ends with the police receiving a report of foul play, so they were permitted to investigate the old man’s house. The narrator goes mad from guilt after hearing a never-ending heartbeat belonging to the old man, thus leading him to confess the deed of murdering the old man. Poe uses symbolism, dramatic irony, and internal conflict to reveal, the writer has written the subject to convey the message that even though everyone may not be mentally ill, fears and consuming thoughts can control people from time to time. 

The first literary device symbolism is generally defined as the use of symbols to portray thoughts, ideas, etc. The first literary device, symbolism, is used by the author to reveal the Narrator’s inhibiting thoughts that will gradually become more substantial as time goes on, and will lead to the killing of the old man. During the exposition, when his sight falls upon the old man's eye is  when he uses symbolism to describe the old man’s eye. “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it.”(2) By scrutinizing the textual evidence we can see that the author represents the Narrator’s intrusive thoughts that will gradually become more substantial as time goes on. Throughout the story we can see that the Narrator's intrusive thoughts are illustrated or symbolized by these things like a “Vulture Eye.” The author uses the vulture eye to represent the deformed and how the author persists, “evil eye”, as a vexing object to him. In conjunction with symbolism we can see the author also uses dramatic irony to strengthen the theme. 

The Second Literary device Dramatic Irony is defined as an audience's awareness of the situation in which a work's characters exist differs substantially. This literary device, Dramatic Irony, relates to the theme, by sharing information with us that the characters do not know, and this dramatic irony can give a lens into the constraining thoughts of the character. The Narrator is speaking to himself about  his mental state. “You fancy me a madman. Madman knows nothing” (poe 3) You can see that in the text, the Narrator is speaking to himself, almost in a reassuring manner, in order to convince himself that he has not gone mad. These meddlesome thoughts enter into his mind and can be used to further the gravity of these intrusive thoughts. This adds more depth into the theme by showing the dramatic irony of the narrator’s beliefs and of him convincing himself he hasn’t gone mad, while in actuality he has. As the story progresses, we are introduced to a plethora more literary devices such as internal conflict. 

The author uses Internal conflict as a major way to express and illustrate the intrusive thoughts of the Narrator. By the use of internal conflict the author  can bring in the perceived struggle of supposed mental illness, and can show how the author scuffles with these intrusive thoughts and how it can control people to do things that may not be morally right. Officers show up to the narrator's home, the result of a report from a person who heard a shriek from the home. The Narrator regrettably invites the narrator to stay for a while. Their conversation slowly begins to retrograde the author's mental state, and almost appears to be going mad. "Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt I must scream or die!"(poe 17) As we read through the narrative, we can see that the narrator clearly struggles with the increasing magnitude of these thoughts, you can see that the author tries to stabilize his thoughts and convince himself that he hasn’t gone  mad  but as the story elapses, we can see the author slowly start to stray away from sanity. This reflects the theme, showing the author, with his thoughts successively starting to turn to madness, and shows that the author's terror and irksome thoughts can control people even without mental illness. In light of all that’s been stated, we can derive the conclusion that the text supports the theme of “Even though everyone may not be mentally ill, fears and intrusive thoughts can control people from time to time.”

Through Edgar Allan Poe’s usage of the literary devices of  symbolism, dramatic irony, and  internal conflict in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” he conveys the message of/that  Even though everyone may not be mentally ill, fears and intrusive thoughts can control people from time to time. By examining the essay’s contents we can see that the author uses at least 3 figurative devices to direct towards a theme. Each of these figurative devices work in conjunction with each other to establish a strong foundation for the theme. The first literary device, symbolism, is utilized by the author to represent the Narrator’s inquisitive thoughts that will progressively become more considerable as time endures, and will lead the way to the killing of the old man, In concurrence with symbolism we can see the author also uses dramatic irony to reinforce the theme,  Dramatic Irony, has reference to the theme, by sharing information with us that the characters do not know, and this dramatic irony can give a lens into the inescapable thoughts of the character,  As the story moves forward, we are greeted with an abundance more literary mechanisms like internal conflict, by the use of internal conflict the author can bring in the recognized struggle of purported mental illness, and can show how the author will fracas with these obtrusive thoughts and how it can obtain sovereignty over people, leading them to do things that may not be morally right. If you follow the evidence where it leads, we can draw a logically consistent conclusion that the claims this evaluation has made, have sufficient substantiation, and that the reported theme is reflective of the story.

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