The Tell Tale Heart Literary Analysis

Iago slowly makes Othello believe in false proof of Desdemona 's affair, thus Othello begins to psychologically change by gradually turning to murder through justification of Iago’s statements on Desdemona: “One is too poor, too weak for my revenge. Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven. 'Tis gone. Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell!

Both of the short stories are about revenge, murder and madness. The narrators of both the Tell-Tale Heart and the Cask of Amontillado have very different motives for committing the murder each of them commits. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator is insane and his motive behind killing the old man is that he cannot stand the sight of the old man’s “vulture eye”. He is tempted to close the eye forever, and so he does this by murdering him. Whereas, in The Cask of Amontillado, the reason behind the murder is revenge, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” Additionally, Montressor’s jealousy is another reason because of which he murders Fortunato.

The story opens off with the narrator trying to assure his sanity then proceeding to tell the tale of his crime, this shows a man deranged and hunted with a guilty conscience of his murderous act. The narrator 's sole reason for such murder is purely in his disturbed mind, as he develops an obsession with the old man 's eye and the plot unfolds from here where his insanity augments with the events of the story. Due to Poe’s illustrative language, various evidence can be presented to confirm the state of mind of the narrator, including, his obsession with the old man’s eye, his precision in committing the impeccable crime and finally the sound of the man’s beating heart solely inside his head. Perhaps it all started with the narrator’s obsession with the man’s “vulture eye” since he believes the eye of being evil, proving the insanity he is gravely trying to deny “I think it was

O’Connor’s trait of violence is used throughout to reveal the corrupt and criminal world that emanates the need for salvation. The violence that we do not get to see for ourselves are the crimes the Misfit committed before the story began. The story begins with the grandmother telling Bailey to “read here what it says he did to these people’” (O’Connor 575). These crimes are violent murders that the Misfit committed beforehand. This displays the criminal world that we live in.

The abnormal way in which these sexual anxieties are presented permits the discussion of these apprehensions. The supernatural renders Lucy inhuman — her twisted face resembles “The coils of Medusa’s snakes ” (Stoker 250) — and as such, the sexual and moral dangers she posits in her independence are punishable by the four men. The same men who once desired nothing more than her pure affections are those who persecute her to the grave, for Lucy now personifies the destructive morals of the transgressive female. The violence employed in their fight against the vampire, in addition to their destruction of Lucy’s egregious body, demonstrates that male anxieties and fears often transform into hatred towards that which questions their masculinity.

While Edgar Allan Poe is indisputably referred to as the ¨Father of the Detective Story,¨ he could also be referred to as the ¨Father of Gothic Fiction.¨ He commonly used dark plots and themes to journey readers into the disturbed minds of his characters, and elements such as symbolism, metonymy of horror and a fascination with the past are prevalent throughout the great works of Edgar Allan Poe. Among his most popular pieces, ¨The Tell-Tale Heart” is no exception to his eerie and mysterious way of writing. This plot of this piece is focused around a mentally mad narrator who tries to convince the reader of his sanity while detailing a murder he committed. Poe´s short story, ¨The Tell-Tale Heart,¨ is a prime example of a gothic story because it includes an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, the theme of death and the sense of madness and emotional distress. The location of this tale is not set in a stereotypical haunted castle or old mansion, which is a staple of gothic literature.

This links to the claim because the narrator was so obsessed with the old man 's eye and his focus was on killing the old man that he started becoming mad. So, the thoughts he had for concealing the body so no one would find out was an act of pure madness. This example and analysis shows why the narrator been obsessed with the old man 's eye and how his obsessions made his mind become

His rational thinking has become distorted as he has become consumed with power and evil, committing numerous murders such as raping innocent women. Unpredictably it is a young boy who is part of the Prophet’s group who kills the evil man. He had been a part of the group and initially considered to be a worthy

Sublimity creates terror through obscurity and uncertainty of potentially, irrationally terrible situations, such as murder or rape. Terror being gendered as feminine, allows Gothic works such as the The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis to complicate the gender and identity of his characters with the aforementioned terror. Murder and rape in The Monk are emphasized, because they create an irrational, immobilizing sense of terror. Ann Radcliffe describes terror as the appropriate method by which sublimity is achieved. While horror is mentioned in The Monk and by Radcliffe, the Gothic

As Poe establishes fear through the narrator 's inner terror caused by the “eye of a vulture”, it inspired me to also create the perception of fear through the narrators paranormal experiences. This is identified as she describes the fright she endured as the monster possessed her body “His eyes locked with mine and his lethal stare into my soul pierced my heart as an evil smile that betrayed all innocence filled his face [...] paralyzed with fear, I could not command myself to function”. The distinctive stylistic features of vivid imagery and personification go hand in hand in this quote to communicate how the fiend’s death stare and wicked smile were so horrific that it incapacitated her ability to function and caused a paralytic fearsome spell on her body. The idea of fear is additionally reinforced in “With the constant thought of this monstrous figure, fear became a poison within me”. The metaphor implies that the fear caused by the dark figure permeating the individuals mind became a living toxin within her.