Tell Tale Heart Short Story

In the short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Fall of the house of Usher”, and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, setting has a significant impact on the central ideas and themes that are presented. In the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the couple of themes that are presented are differently impacted by the setting. One of the central ideas presented in this story is sanity. This is one of the ideas that setting does not play a large role in presenting. The actions that the neighbor takes against the old man completely illustrates this theme. For example when the narrator thought that the old man had an “evil eye” and he had to kill the eye for a reason that is clearly apparent to the him but not at all apparent to the reader.

For eight nights straight, the narrator broke into this old man’s bedroom to look at him when his eye was closed and it was not visible. The fact that Poe uses night time for the man to break into an old man’s house which is a scary thought already, adds to the scariness. Another central idea of this short story challenges and almost the idea of home or the feeling of home. Traditionally, a home is a place where people are supposed to safe, secure and “at home.” In this story though, there is no sense of these feelings at all. In this home there is a feeling of creepiness, false-security, isolation and death. In the story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, much like the “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the setting has different impacts on the themes that are presented. The whole story is set in an old creepy house without a specific geographical location. The word choice that Poe uses to describe the House of Usher, such as “first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit” shows that it is a gloomy rather scary place. Although the outside of the house is described as simple yet gloomy and

One of the themes presented in this story is happiness/freedom and confinement. This story takes place in Italy, during carnival season. The choice of this venue, a carnival suggests the theme of happiness and freedom. Another theme that is present is the effects of betrayal/ revenge. First we, the audience, learns that the narrator who is unnamed until the very end had been betrayed multiple times by his “friend”. Then, we learn that the narrator’s motive is strictly revenge. Because it is carnival season, his friend is already drunk when they meet up and he keeps talking about a brandy that he has found — Amontillado. He then expresses his interest in getting more alcohol, which leads the narrator to believe that this is the best chance to get his revenge. With his friend intoxicated and as an effect his clouded judgment, it was easier for the narrator to manipulate him. The narrator then leads the friend into an underground catacomb that supposedly holds more alcohol. Poe who uses very gothic themes in his writing and the choice of a catacomb is just that. A catacomb is dark and full of corpses and bones, which illustrates the darkness of the narrator’s mind and foreshadows death. As the story goes on, the narrator leads his friend deeper and deeper into the catacomb the walls close in and the space gets smaller and smaller. This shows that as the time