Indirect Characterization In The Tell Tale Heart

This ends up further emphasizing his instability. It is the narrator’s constant usage of the em dash (long dash) that sets the story’s unstable, disturbing mood. The narrator uses this punctuation mark as he repeats and interrupts his own thought process, often more than once in a single sentence. Punctuation is used throughout the passage to support the other methods of showing the narrator’s mental state. Edgar Allan Poe, writing in the first person as an unnamed man, uses syntax to express the idea that the narrator is unstable.

1 lines 50-51, the main character, Macbeth, states in a monologue, “A dagger of the mind, a false creation proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain” (Act 2. Sc. 1). This quote describes a hallucination that Macbeth is having, which displays that his unconscious mind is clouded with guilt and the hallucination is merely a manifestation of his undiscovered emotions. Sigmund Freud quotes that, “Unexpressed

The narrator’s psychological instability is visible through the tone, the syntax and the constant alleviation between sanity and insanity. The beginning of the “Tell-Tale Heart” immediately sets the ambiguous mood of the story. The first line captivates almost instantaneously the reader’s attention due to the irregular pattern of the sentence. “TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (Oates & Ed, 1992).

As he continues to ask questions to it, he discovers that nevermore is the only thing the raven will say. The questions became more and more personal and filled with pain the further the poem progresses. Not getting any answers results in the narrator becoming more and more desperate and insane. In this analysis I want to focus on how Poe’s writing in The Raven progressively gives the reader the feeling that the narrator turns insane. How does he create the progression from a seemingly normal man to an insane one?

In addition, the syntax of the novel leaves certain aspects of the ending up for multiple interpretations creating tension between open and closed readings of the text (Bennet and Royle 232). Together, the syntax and ambiguous ending create suspense that engage the reader until the end of the story. In the last section of "The Yellow Wallpaper" CP Gillman destabilizes the reader by using unique syntax to describe the wallpaper and the narrator 's actions illustrating the narrator 's descent into madness and opening up the ending for multiple interpretations. 2. At the end of the story, CP Gillman uses the changes in the mental state of the narrator to destabilize the reader, leaving them to wonder whether or not the narrator will recover from her illness at the end of the story.

Typically, a story begins with a setting of the scene. It immediately dives into a reaction of something or someone. The story opens with the neurotic narrator telling the reader that he is nervous, “True! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?... How, then, am I mad?” (Poe 1).

Edgar Allan Poe uses figurative language to develop the theme of “The Masque of the Red Death.” He uses figurative language in this short story to give the reader a sense of gloomy feeling. By using personification, simile, metaphors, symbolism, imagery, and many other examples the theme of the short story is revealed to be greatly impacted and developed well. Imagery is a great example of how figurative language develops the theme. Poe uses personification to give a very somber or gloomy tone and make the reader feel very uneasy and scared. An example of imagery would be “The “Red Death” had long devastated the country.

“Behind the wall” Suspense is used to bring fear Into a person's mind. In Edgar Allen Poe’s exciting story “The Cask of the Amontillado”, He creates a dark and suspenseful mood. Montresor has been plotting revenge on Fortunato, and the suspenseful mood lead Montresor to force the last stone into position and listen to the wails of Fortunato “low moaning cries”. From the beginning Poe used Montresor to create a suspenseful theme that leads another man locked behind a wall for eternity. The Suspenseful tone is seen through the word of Montresor.

Have you ever done something so out of character, so odd, that you have to stop and wonder if it was undoubtedly you who did it? It could possibly mean that your grip on sanity slipped and insanity took hold. Fortunately you managed to ensnare sanity again, as some aren’t so lucky. Such examples of these ill-fated people are written about in “The Black Cat” and in “The Tell-tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe. As we witness their journey into the depths of insanity, the characters mannerisms morph into something abnormal.

In Duffy’s free verse, dramatic monologue poem ‘Havisham’ cacophony and juxtaposition are employed in the opening phrase ‘beloved sweetheart bastard’. The juxtaposition between the descriptive adjective ‘beloved’ and the noun ‘sweetheart’ and the profane noun ‘bastard’ show the change in the narrator’s attitude towards the relationship. It also conveys the unstable mental state of Havisham and exposes her uncertainty and ambivalence. The cacophony also shows the narrators anger directed towards this unnamed ‘bastard’; this anger has replaced what we can infer to be affection from metonymical phrases such as ‘a white veil’ and ‘honeymoon’ Cacophony is also used in the last stanza coupled with half rhyme. Duffy uses a series of words - ‘awake, hate, face, cake, and break’ – to convey the mood of the poem.