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A Comparison Of Literary Devices In Tell-Tale Heart And The Birthmark

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Poe v.s. Hawthorne: A Comparison of Literary Devices The similarities between Poe and Hawthorne are very visible throughout many of their works, but most people don't see or grasp the literary devices that make them similar. Tell Tale Heart and The Birthmark are written in a very similar styles but their messages covey something much deeper. Poe and Hawthorne convey the dark side of humanity, but it's the matter in which it is delivered that differs, though yielding the same result Poe’s short story Tell Tale Heart has a very dark and ominous tone to it. Poe uses different characterization to convey how creepy and ominous the narrator is. Poe characterizes the narrator as an extremely obsessive person. The deranged narrator is infatuated with the old man’s eye. Poe even states that the narrator had no quarrel with the old man other than the fact that the man's glaucoma bothered him. Poe goes into excessive detail about the man’s eye, and about the narrator's plan to remove the man from existence. “It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed.” (Poe). Poe characterizes the narrator as a methodical and seasoned stalker, this …show more content…

In Tell Tale Heart there is a major overlying ironic theme; the death of one man because of what may be considered a flaw, his eye, at the hands of one with a much more severe flaw, madness. This is ironic because the narrator’s flaw was hidden, but dangerous; while the victims flaw was visible and harmless. The narrator is a madman. He constantly obsesses over the eye of the old man, who has glaucoma. Eventually it becomes too much for him to bear and he kills the innocent old man. The irony as a whole is a device that can create a secret meaning and make the story much better, and Poe uses that technique very well. The use of irony in Poe’s work makes for a much better read and a better story all

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233 Words | 1 Pages

In the story, “Tell Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe creates an ironic, or sarcastic, tone through his choice of diction, figurative language, and irony. First, in paragraph one, the narrator says, “True!--nervous--very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” Poe uses words such as dreadfully, nervous and mad to show diction. This contributes to the tone because he is saying that he isn't mad when in fact, he had killed someone over their vulture looking eye. Poe also uses a lot of figurative language throughout the story.

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332 Words | 2 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story about a mentally-ill unnamed narrator who tries to prove he is not insane after murdering an old man because of his villainous eye. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Allan Poe often uses repetition and similes to describe the frightening old man’s eye and to effectively develop the experience of the narrator committing the crime. Allan Poe first recalls that the old man’s heartbeat “grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant... it grew louder, I say louder every moment!”

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833 Words | 4 Pages

Irony in Poe’s stories moves the story forward, deepens its meaning, and sometimes helps reveal character personalities and

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370 Words | 2 Pages

Madness is developed between both texts, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain” as the central idea. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” madness is shown by Poe not liking the old man’s eye. In “I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain” madness is shown when the girl is imaging a her own funeral because she is upset with how her life is going. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe is mad at this old man’s eye because he feels that it looks weird.

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250 Words | 1 Pages

Poe use situational irony when he describes that he pitied the old man, although he chuckled at heart. This is situational irony because Edgar Allen Poe was planning to murder the old man and when he stated that he pited the old man, the audience became surprised because that is the opposite of what we expected

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560 Words | 3 Pages

The Style of Poe Analysis In “The Tell-tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, the demented, arrogant and dark tones reflect the man’s guilt and insanity that eventually leds him to admit to the crime he committed. Poe’s diction heightens the arrogant tones which is seen as the man plans the murder and carries it out in a careful, organized way. He goes “boldly” into the chamber, “cunningly” sticks his head in the doorway and feels “the extent of his own power”. Poe’s use of diction shows how cocky the man actually is.

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720 Words | 3 Pages

Through many of Poe’s works, from his short stories, “The Cask to Amontillado”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, to his poems, “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven”, Poe has established himself as a prolific writer of the genre of Gothic horror in American literature. At the early age of three, Poe was orphaned and sent to a foster family. As he grew older, he had many disputes with his adoptive father, and was disowned. He served in the army before marrying his wife, who would later die at the age of 24, leaving Poe in despair and inspiring many of his works. The reason to how Poe creates a chilling style that is prevalent in many of his works is his repeated use of both repetition and irony.

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955 Words | 4 Pages

Edgar Allan Poe, the author of many short stories and poems such as A Tell-Tale Heart, Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, and much more, uses imagery, irony, and parallel structure in order to convey a common dark truth. Poe was an American writer who was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809. By the age of two years old, his family had been abandoned by his father and his mother died the following year. After his mother’s death, he had been orphaned. Later on, when he became a writer, he used his warped past to make meaningful pieces of literature that are still and will continue to be, treasured.

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419 Words | 2 Pages

The Tell-Tale Heart is a story about a nameless narrator who claims that he is not insane but rather has some sort of “disease”(Poe 303). A disease that has “sharpened [his] senses”(Poe 303). To prove that he isn’t insane, he begins by saying, “How, then, am I mad? Hearken!

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1006 Words | 5 Pages

Initially, the narrator says that he is not crazy, but then says he can hear heaven and hell. The reader is confused as to why someone who can hear heaven and hell would be sane. Another example of when irony is used in Poe’s short stories, is in “The Raven.” As the narrator recites his feelings of how he wants the bird to leave, he says, “‘And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door ... And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted—nevermore” (Poe 4)!

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768 Words | 4 Pages

In Edgar Allan Poe’s story there is a line that says, “And did this for seven long nights--- every night just at midnight--- but I found the eye always closed--”.(On page 538;2) This reveals on how Poe used the knowledge of not knowing someone, being the murderer, was watching the old man every night for the past seven nights straight while the old man slept in his bed. On another line on page page ___;1, Poe wrote “And now a the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of the old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror.”

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471 Words | 2 Pages

Dramatic irony is usually an over the top, tragic form of irony. Both Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are great examples of an ironic situation. Every expresses the common theme in their own way. Although both of these literally pieces provide us with the theme of irony, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" gives the reader a sense of suspense with the irony that proves to be more effective. Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" emphasizes on how a man’s thoughts and perception can affect oneself and other’s lives.

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736 Words | 3 Pages

In literature, the most satisfying stories have an ironic element to them. The irony unravels many characterics of the story without directly stating it and in turn, tells the opposite of what is presented, and Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” shows how this can enhance a story. This gothic fiction focuses on an unnamed narrator as he tries to justify his various actions against an old man. Through his attempts, however, contradictions and irony in his actions start to appear. Poe uses irony in “The Tell-Tale Heart” to show how the narrator's attempts to present his sanity reveals his insanity through his various actions and dialogue.

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209 Words | 1 Pages

The eye symbolizes evilness to the narrator. This creates conflict to the narrator because he wants to get rid of that vulture eye. The eye of the old man was what the narrator wanted to get rid of because “ whenever [the eye] fell upon [him], [his] blood [felt] cold”(Poe 1). When the eye of the old man comes in contact with him he feels how the evilness of the eye goes deep in him, making him want to get rid of it. The sight of the eye makes him get chills and he deeply feels how his blood get cold just of the sight of that eye.

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821 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator of “The Tell-tale Heart” is a madman who does not believe he is insane but continues to show otherwise during the telling of how he kills the old man to police officers. After a week of planning the murder, he still did not find satisfactory because he could still hear the beating of the old man’s heart. Also, if one is not a madman then why would one commit such a crime just because of an eye. While the narrator explains the story of how and why he commits murder, one can conclude that some details are unrealistic throughout his story. Which leads him to come off as a psychopath because of the details and the reason behind killing the old man.

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