Tell-Tale Heart

Author Overview

Edgar Allen Poe was born in 1809 in Boston. He was the earliest American practitioner of the short story and the inventor of detective-fiction. His eccentric lifestyle and alcohol abuse led him to write many great but bizarre stories, including "The Raven" in 1845. The early death of his wife is thought to have influenced him in writing many stories involving death. He died in 1849, though the cause of his death remains unknown.

Point of View

The point of view used in "The Tell-Tale Heart'' is the first person point of view. The narrator is the main character, thus making the statements and descriptions in the story subjective. This adds to the story because it make us see things through the eyes of the madman.

Style

1. Imagery

"His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness."

2. Metaphor

"...a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye"

3. Simile

"...a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton"

4. Personification

"All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim."

5. Irony

An example of irony in the story would be the fact that the narrator keeps assuring us that he was calm and that he had perpetrated the perfect crime, but that he ends up confessing without even being asked to (because his guilty conscience makes him go mad).

Vocabulary

1. Hearken: to give heed or attention to what is said; listen

2. Cunningly: skillfully, slyly

3. Sagacity: acuteness of mental discernment and soundness of judgement

4. Bosom: the breast, conceived as the center of feelings or emotions

5. Tattoo: knocking or strong pulsation

6. Suavity: smoothly agreeable quality

7. Trifles: a matter, affaire, circumstance of trivial importance or signifiance

8. Dissemble: to give a false or misleading appearance to

9. Deeds: something that is done, performed, or accomplished

10. Foresight; care or provision for the future