ipl-logo

Comparing The Tell-Tale Heart And The Reaper's Image

3409 Words14 Pages

1.1 LINGUISTIC FEATURES
The short stories of “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Reaper’s Image” would on the surface have the potential to lead a reader to believe that they will be similar due to being horror stories by two of the most recognized horror writers. However, in a linguistic sense, this can be seen to be far from the case.
The “Tell-Tale Heart” was written by Edgar Allen Poe and is a horror short-story. It was written in 1843. “The Reaper’s Image” was written by Stephen King and is also a horror short-story. It was originally published in 1969. The rationale for choosing these two selections is that they are both of a similar genre. Locating corresponding semantics in the stories by identifying differing words used by the authors …show more content…

In this case, it is easier to change “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe to reflect the same as “The Reaper’s Image”. One of the first elements that would require revision would be the words that are used in the story. Examples of this would be hearken, dissimulation, lantern, and shutters. These would be changed to listen, deceit, lamp, and curtains respectively. Additionally, there would be elements of the way the sentences are structured that would need to be changed to make the story sound the same as the more modern story by King. For instance, instead of saying “He had never given me insult,” the sentence would be structured as “He had never insulted me.” Just this small change in the order of the words changes it to sound more …show more content…

(1974). Literacy and Social Mobility in the Industrial Revolution in England. Past & Present, (64), 96-107. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/650318
Lenoir, Andrew. “The Unsolved Murder That Fascinated 1840s New York (and Edgar Allan Poe).” Mental Floss, 24 Feb. 2017, mentalfloss.com/article/92444/unsolved-murder-fascinated-1840s-new-york-and-edgar-allan-poe.
Lowell, James Russell. The Biglow Papers. Kindle version, George Routledge and Sons, 1886.
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). “National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL).” National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education, 2018, nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp.
Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Acute. Oxford English Dictionary, www.oed.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/view/Entry/2031?rskey=Iu5uTh&result=1&isAdvanced=false#eid. Accessed March 30, 2018.
Roser, Max, and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina. “Literacy.” Our World in Data, 2018, ourworldindata.org/literacy.
“The Reaper's Image.” Skeleton Crew, by Stephen King, Scribner, 2014, pp. 477–486.
“The Tell-Tale Heart.” The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe: with Selections from His Critical Writings, by Edgar Allan Poe, Barnes & Noble Books, 1992, pp.

Open Document