The Use of Imagery, Strong Irony, and Similes in The Tell-Tale Heart, a Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe - Essay Example

The Use of Imagery, Strong Irony, and Similes in The Tell-Tale Heart, a Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe

At the beginning of the story, the narrator by Poe claims that he is not mad, although he suffers from a disease he calls "acute feelings." His hearing is especially acute - so much so that sometimes he even "hears hell." The narrator reports that he lived in the same house with the old man (probably the owner of the house). They had a neighbor who may even have lived in the same house behind the wall. The narrator, he said, treated the man well, loved him, and never wanted to take possession of his wealth, but he was infuriated by the pale, blue eyes of death of the mad man, covered with film and resembling the eye of a vulture. It was because of this that the hero's eyes decided to kill.

The killer in work prepared for a long time and carefully: for a week at the same time, he opened the door to the old man's room and watched him sleep. On the eighth night, the old man woke up to a sharp sound and was horrified, but after a while calmed down and lay down again. The assassin opened the gate of the lantern, and a thin ray of light fell directly on the old man's blind eye; suddenly, the latch of the lantern clicked, and the narrator heard the frequent beating of the anxious victim's heart, which grew louder and louder. Fearing that this sound would attract the neighbor's attention, the murderer shouted at the old man; he managed to shout once, but the narrator "pulled the man to the floor and crushed him with a heavy bed," strangling the victim. The man's heart fell silent. Poe writes that the killer deftly and cold-bloodedly dismembered the corpse into five parts and hid them under the bridges in the room, hiding his guilt. He acted so skillfully that even the blood did not have to be washed: there were no traces left.

According to Poe, the night was coming to an end when three policemen came to the house: a neighbor heard a shout and called them. The killer behaved calmly: he said that he screamed in his sleep, and the man left the city. The police believed him but still inspected the house. The killer led them through all the rooms, and in the one where the corpse was hidden, they settled down for a casual conversation. Poe creates the danger that seemed to have passed, but suddenly the killer heard his victim's heartbeat again from under the bridges. The knocking grew louder and louder and louder than the killer decided that the police could also hear him. Trying to distract them and muffle the sound, he began to speak louder and louder, then shouted, cursed, knocked on the furniture, but nothing helped: the beating of the heart-detector could not be shouted. Convinced that the police had guessed everything and pretended not to hear anything, mocking him, the killer confessed to the crime, realizing his guilt and begging to raise the boards and silence the heartbeat under them.

The Tell-Tale Heart by Poe is the story about the horror of death and guilt, and the imagery used by Poe is settled to make the scenery more compelling. Poe creates a clear example of how to write short stories with the use of irony. The story is extremely minimalist; the Poe cuts off all the superfluous, leaving only the essentials to explain the essence of the story. The work by Poe leaves a lot of space for the reader's imagination, which creates a contrast of irony with the extremely scrupulous description of the crime, death, and guilt itself. The central place in the story is occupied by two capacious imagery symbols - the eye and the heart. The first of them is typical for texts by Poe, the second - for the romantic tradition as a whole. With the story The Tell-tale Heart, Poe begins a series of short stories on the subject of self-disclosure of guilt under the influence of "the devil of contradiction." It is widely believed among literary critics that Poe used irony in the literary experiments in this direction that became the starting point for a number of Dostoevsky's ideas, and also influenced other great authors. The Tell-Tale Heart - one of the most famous works of Edgar Allan Poe, the story is recognized as a classic of the Gothic genre and is often screened.

But even in a very short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart," we can see how Poe was able to work with intricate meanings in a filigree way, creating such a multi-layered reality, irony, similes, and imagery that the reader did not immediately understand what subtle trap he was in. In work by Poe, the narration is conducted on behalf of the nameless storyteller who killed the man with whom he lived under the same roof. The narrator by Poe insists on his sanity, that he is not mad, explaining the crime by the fact that the old man had a bad "eye of the neck" with a thorn, the appearance of which infuriated the killer. In his confession, the narrator by Poe describes in detail the path that led to the crime and the subsequent exposure: the killer gave himself out to the police, as he allegedly heard a loud beat of the victim's heart from under the floorboards and was sure that the police also heard him being not mad. As for the use of imagery, strong irony, and similes in The Tell-Tale Heart, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, there are different literary devices and imagery used by Poe. There are direct symbols in work by Poe that help us understand the real meaning of the work - it is the eye and the heart. We do not know anything about the old man or the killer, even their names, and we do not know. The killer just tells us his story, from the name of Poe. By the way, we don't know the gender of the killer either. The fact is that due to the peculiarities of the English grammar, Poe manages to avoid any indication of the gender of the killer. We also do not know the age of the killer. Poe allows the reader to simulate the situation in his own way. Step by step, we move along the plot of the story, as if we are present next to the main character. We are given his anxiety, tension, hatred, and fear of guilt and death. But back to the eye and heart, Poe creates the stronger mad irony. The protagonist simultaneously loves and hates the old man. Rather, as reflected by Poe, he hates the weird "eye of the neck." In general, the imagery of the neck is the image of a bird of prey associated with death and mad decay. The eye becomes a metaphor for the power and supervision of the old man over the mad protagonist (suppose that he is a young hero created by Poe). And in this sense, he is under the oppressive oppression of the old man (perhaps he is his Father). This is a frequent motif of Edgar Allan Poe. He often uses the eye in his works as a metaphor for fear, horror, and anxiety. In essence, the eyes are a door to another world that is scary, terrifying, and it opens the door to the soul of another person. But the killer also has its own artificial eye - this is a lantern with a narrow curtain that shines in the old man's eye. The heart in the story is also a central symbol, along with the eye. Firstly, Poe, with the help of a heartbeat, can manipulate time in the text, either speeding it up or slowing it down. Secondly, the heart is a symbol of the inner world of man, his soul. Due to this, we understand that the namelessness in the story is not accidental. At the same time, Poe compares the heartbeat with the hours of life and the hours of death. It is at midnight (the beginning of a new day, a new day) that a mad person comes to observe the old man. He opens the door to the old man's bedroom and stares at the sleeping man for a long time, "listening to the clock of death behind the wall." In general, Poe mixes it with imagery of heartbeat, symbolizing death, and life. Frankly, we generally don't know exactly whose beating heart the narrator hears: the old man or his own? Poe lets us know. By Poe, the imagery of killing the old man is a crime against himself. The protagonist confesses when he hears the deafening beating of the heart of an old person whom he hid under the floorboards, "without a drop of blood." And here it is very important that the killer by Poe does not want an excuse, insisting on his sanity, he says that he is fully aware of what he has done and admits his guilt. The biblical characters in the story by Poe reinforce this guilt. In addition to guilt and retribution for innocent blood, three police officers appear in the story, called by neighbors alarmed by the noise in the room. The imagery of the number "three" for Poe symbolizes the Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit); its appearance is the denunciation of the hero who committed the crime. Three surrounds the hero by Poe: three policemen (are there too many law enforcement officers for ordinary noise?); three-floor boards under which the killer hides the corpse, three hours from the moment of the murder to the exposure of the offender. And after all, the police by Poe does not do anything - they just make it possible for the criminal himself to repent.