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Examples Of Irony In The Tell Tale Heart

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The Tell Tale Heart Irony In literature, as in life, things are not always as they appear, and expectations often differ from reality. In the story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator wants to get rid of an old man's awful vulture eye, but he has nothing against the old man. He only has hatred for his evil eye. So in the middle of the night when the old man's eye is open he kills him, chops him up, and puts him on the floorboards. While the police are checking the house, the narrator cracks and gives himself up. In this story, irony is the reason that expectations are different from reality. There are many examples of irony throughout the story, because they add suspense. One example of irony in this story is when the narrator is convinced that he can hear the old man's heart beating under the floorboards. …show more content…

No doubt I now grew very pale — but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased — and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound — much like the sound a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath — and yet the officers heard it not.” (4) This is an example of irony because the narrator very strongly believes that he is hearing the dead man's heart beating under the floor, but in reality there is no way a dead man's heart could beat after being chopped up. This is dramatic irony because the reader knows that the narrator is hearing his own heartbeat and not the man, but the narrator thinks that the heartbeat is coming from the dead man. This adds suspense because we want to know what the narrator is going to say about the heartbeat in his ears. A second clear example of irony in the story is when the narrator tells his story, trying to prove to us he is sane. This occurs when the narrator claims, “True! nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I have been and am; but why would you say that I am

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