The tell-tale heart is a short story which is written by Edgar Allan Poe, an American literature writer who lived in the beginning of 19th century. This short story is about a ‘’crazy’’ men who killed an old man in his house. After, a really short time the police visits the crime scène and police did not know that men had killed the old men inside his house, but finally he recognizes his guilt and mentions that he killed the old man, because his heart told to do so.
The title already gives a hint on the end of the story, means snitching what, also happens on the end of the short story. The order that this story is written in is that it first starts with an opening, then the murder and then finally the guilt that the killer feels, and he tells the police. It is set up in an urban area, this can be derived from the story because it says: ‘police arrived early’. This is office that this is in an urban area, because in a rural it costs mostly more time. It is written in the around 1850s.
The story is written in the perspective of the killer, so this story is written in first person. The reader can now, understand how the killer, feels thinks and how he lives his life. The three character who play the most important role in the story, are the narrator (killer), the police officer and old man. Firstly, the narrator is crazy and at the end of the story he kills the other important character (the old man).
This story has various of different themes. The most important one is time; this is referenced by the time and clocks in the story. Time is like the real sequence of the story at when and where different events take place. Another theme is the bedroom this where the old man is killed by the narrator, the metal bed where the old man was sleeping in was thrown on him and his that body was lying under there for the time being. The last one is crime and punishment, because of course the crime which the narrator did and killed the old man and then finally got this, because he was sent to jail for an unknown time.
The short story also has symbols. The first are the watches, this are the ones which represent time throughout the whole story. The heartbeat represents the things that the narrator feels that he needs to do, because he can feel this. The eye represents the narrators the identity that wanted to refuse or accept. This is, also represent the old man who died and his eye.
The author of this short story, Edgar Allan Poe uses a lot of stylistic devices throughout his short story to make it livelier and more attractive to read. Firstly, a lot of repetitions throughout the story such as Very, very or steadily or even a whole sentence which is repeated. Secondly, rhetoric to connect with the reader, an example is ‘I heard many things in hell, how then am I mad?’. Even a personification, an example of this one is stone dead. Irony is, also important to make the story livelier, because he is guilty, but still admits to the police, because his heart said that he needed to do so.
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