Lesson 3.2.8
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West Anchorage High School *
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English
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Nov 24, 2024
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The Tell-Tale Heart
Have you ever wonder how it would feel like to murder someone? Should he hide it or should he
confess? In the story “The Tell- Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1843.
In this story it follows
an unnamed narrator who insists on his insanity after murdering a elderly man with a “vulture eye,” a pale
blue eye with a film over it. The murder is mentally calculated, and the caretaker hides the body by cutting it
into pieces and placing it under floorboards. Poe effectively creates this eerie and disturbing atmosphere in
this story. Yet how does he do it?
Poe is a phenomenal writer with amazing literature skills. He specializes in word choice, imagery, and
suspense. Like, as he stated in the poem “his room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness, for the
shutters
were closed and fastened, through fear of robbers.” That sentence gives us, the readers, a whole
visual of the extremely spooky dark room the old man slept in.
He also created spooky characters, like the
caretaker. His mental viewpoint is “When the old man looked at me with his vulture eye a cold feeling went up
and down my back; even my blood became cold. And so, I finally decided I had to kill the old man and close
that eye forever! So you think that I am mad? A madman cannot plan.” He is mentally ill and insane, killing a
man for no reason because he thinks his eye is evil. “I could hear sounds I have never heard before. I heard
sounds from heaven; and I heard sounds from hell.” He hears voices and sees things in unnecessary bad ways.
In this story it teaches you the effects of wrongdoing, and how it is best to just confess because if you
don't then you will end up feeling guilty. Therefore, at the end of the poem when the police officers came to
the house, from hearing the old man’s cries. The caretaker said “I was suffering more than I could bear, from
their smiles, and from that sound. Louder, louder, louder! Suddenly I could no longer bear it. I pointed at the
boards and cried, “Yes! Yes, I killed him.” He had to confess…
guilty indeed. This poem showcases Poe’s
graphic figurative language in a completely new way that pulls readers in, such as myself. I enjoyed the way he
made this story disturbing with horror fiction and irony. It’s a must read!
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