What Is The Mood Of The Tell Tale Heart

In the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart'' by Edgar Allan Poe, the mood is sinister, and the author uses the craft moves symbolism and revealing actions. In the beginning of the story, Poe uses symbolism to illustrate what the killer’s motive was behind. The symbol in this story is the old man’s pale blue eye which resembled a vulture's eye. The old man's eye made the madmen want to kill him. Every time he looked at it he would go cold and have goosebumps run down his spine. Poe writes, “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture— a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold;” (542). This particular evidence shows the reader that the pale blue eye is a symbol in the story because the plot is built up just from the eye itself.

Every Time he saw that eye his body would fill up with anger to the point where he just wanted to slaughter the man. He kills the old man and cuts his limbs off and shoves it under the floorboard. The eye is a symbol in this story because without the eye the mood would not be so sinister. Furthermore, Poe uses revealing actions to show the reader how the mood is evoked in the story by slowly, but steadily revealing actions that the reader knows is coming. The author reveals action by hinting to the reader that the madman is going to kill him. Poe states, “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with what caution- with what foresight-with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than dur- ing the whole week before I killed him” (542). The author reveals the action by explaining to the reader that the unreliable narrator was very careful before killing the old man. The narrator thought every action through before he did it. He was kind to the old man, so that he could gain his trust. Without gaining his trust the old man would have known something was