Tell Tale Heart Diction

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The Tell-Tale heart is a story about a killing. It is creepy story that will leave you thinking. In the Tell-Tale heart, Edgar Allen Poe uses dark details, figurative language, and connotative diction to create a horrifying mood. Poe’s use of dark details create a horrifying mood. One example is, “I moved slowly-very, very slowly so that I might not disturb the old man’s sleep.”(Poe 175) This shows detail because when he describes how the narrator moves he uses details to get the point clear. Another quote would be, “I saw it with perfect distinctness-as dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones.”(poe 178) This prove that by using details like “Dull” and “hideous”, he creates a dark mood. One last piece of evidence would be, “And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror.”(Poe 178) This shows that the words “dead, “dreadful”, and “uncontrollable” are all details that make …show more content…

One example is, “ True!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am.” This shows that he uses connotative diction because he states that he is feeling nervous. Another quote would be, “The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed-not dulled them.” This proves that he felt as if the disease had sharpen him and not destroy or dull him. Lastly, a supporting detail would be, “ How then am I mad?Hearken! And observe how healthily-how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” This reveals that by using words like, “healthily” and “calmly” he shows how he is feeling and uses connotative diction. Overall, he uses connotative diction to produce a horrifying mood to the reader. To conclude, in the Tell-Tale Heart, Poe produces a horrifying mood. He uses dark details, figurative language, and connotative diction. His story is a bone chilling thriller that will give you mixed