Literary Analysis of The Tell-Tale HeartEdgar Allen Poe was born in 1809 and became one of the authors the most critical of his time. Poe is the author of numerous works and has been the subject of countless critiques and attempts to analyze his work, but it is difficult to understand an author who possesses qualities of people that we do not understand very well. Poe was a drug addict, an alcoholic, an incestuous man (although common) and a murderer or at least in his short stories he was. An example of a short story in which Poe wrote about killing someone was in "The Tell-Tale Heart". In this story, Edgar Allen Poe uses imagery, strong irony, and similes to show that humans cannot handle guilt and are dying to reveal the truth. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay First of all, when a person reads “The Tell-Tale Heart,” all kinds of images can be found. The first example of imagery we find is when Poe speaks of "the pale blue eye, with a film on it." Poe described the eye as such because blue represents innocence, but the paleness of the eye as well as the film covering it are representations of guilt. When a person feels guilty, not only does they feel like everyone knows they did it, but everyone can tell that there is something different about that person and the case. of Poe, it “made his blood run cold.” How does Poe know that the old man is guilty of something? Well, this story is a psychosexual tale and Poe is a practicing sadomasochist and he also participated in voyeurism (Dayon 225). This suggests to me that Poe was watching the old man's every move because he loved him and loved the thrill he got from spying on him. Could it be that Poe saw the old man do something he shouldn't have? Or perhaps Poe's aversion to the eye was because it always seemed open, which would limit Poe's taboo fantasy and make it more difficult to realize. According to Gita Rajan and her article on a feminist reading of "The Tell-Tale Heart", she seems to think that the character in Poe's story is a woman. There is no evidence that Poe was open to homosexuality, which makes it seem more possible that the character was female. It doesn't change the story, but it makes the idea more interesting, but why did Poe kill him? According to Magdalen Wing-chi Ki in her article on the evil of the ego, she believes that Poe experienced the most common form of perverse excuses. She describes the evil of the ego as "the elevation of self-esteem" (Ki, 25.) Poe felt so good that it outweighed the seriousness of the murder. Another example of imagery that shows how much Poe hated the eye because it was always open is the following: “It was open – wide, wide open – and I became furious as I looked at it. » Why would Poe be so angry about the open eye? Because it stopped Poe from fulfilling his fantasy. Another example of imagery in the story is when Poe surprised the old man in his sleep and is now frozen in time to avoid being caught by the eye of the old man's "vulture". “Death, approaching him, advanced with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim.” This imagery is also interpreted as a bit of foreshadowing. I believe this quote refers to death as well as guilt. Whatever guilt the old man may have had followed him wherever he went and consumed him. Finally, if we look at amoment in the story when the tables are turned and Poe bears all the guilt, we see that he is still using imagery to describe the sounds that guilt makes. “It was a deep, dull, rapid sound – a sound like a watch wrapped in cotton.” The watch he is referring to is not the one you tell the time with, but a scarab that symbolizes impending death (more on that later.) One of the most important literary devices Poe uses in his story is irony. Referring to the first two examples of images and how they relate to guilt, one cannot think of irony, but when looking at the third example it shows that the guilt Poe thought of the old man was ironic about his own guilt. As Poe looked into the room where the old man slept, Poe describes listening to the "watches of death in the wall." Death's watches are beetles that infest woods and produce a clicking sound that was considered an omen of death and, ironically, it came true. Shortly after hearing the death eves, Poe decides to rush into the room and kill the old man. There is also a certain irony in dismembering this man's body. Poe decides to keep the body inside the house. The purpose of killing the old man was to get rid of this open eye, but he kept this eye with him in the house. Another irony of the story occurs at the beginning. “I have heard all things in heaven and on earth. I have heard many things in hell. So how crazy am I? Poe does not recognize that he is suffering from a physiological disorder, even though we (the readers) clearly see that he is not a typical man. As the story progresses, Poe continues to try to persuade the reader that he is not crazy. Even after murdering the old man, he tries to convince you that he can't be crazy. Crazy people wouldn't have been so cunning in murder. All this is ironic because we can see that Poe is crazy, but is the old man the only victim? According to Paul Witherington who writes "The Accomplice in 'The Tell-Tale Heart'", he says that there are two victims in this story. The old man and Poe himself are victims. The old man because he was murdered, but also Poe because of his mental illness (Witherington, 472.) It is possible that Poe made this character mentally ill to simply "spice up" the story, but nothing is simple with Poe. Poe wants to change our idea of ​​what a madman is. He wants us to consider that a person is not crazy if he can plan the things he wants to do so carefully. You think I'm crazy. Fools don't know anything. But you should have seen me. You should have seen with what wisdom I proceeded, with what prudence, with what forethought, with what dissimulation I set to work! He was a very cunning criminal and not a madman… or so he wants us to believe. Finally, Poe uses similes in his story to help describe things and allow us to see them in our heads. “Still dark as midnight.” This quote is after the old man died and what time it was. “One of its eyes looked like a vulture’s.” A simile to describe the appearance of the old man's eye. And to ultimately be a descriptor that Poe decided to remove. In my opinion, the similes simply add more quality to the poem. Irony helps build the story and images, and comparisons add “flavor” to the story. The story would not have the “vulture” eye without the use of the preceding simile. To conclude, Edgar Allan Poe is arguably one of the best writers of horror fiction to date and with his use of..