Edgar Allan Poe is one of the many authors who use events from their lives to affect their setting, plot and character(s). Throughout his life Poe witnessed many deaths, like his wife Virginia. He must have felt an enormous amount of guilt while she was sick because he had absolutely nothing to help her. This incident most likely helped inspire the short story The Tell Tale Heart. Coincidentally, a prominent theme in the story is Guilt, specifically, how it can drive a person crazy. “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture- a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” (203) This specific quote aids the reader in picturing the disturbing eye of the old man. “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” (203) This quote helps explain the narrator’s intense hatred for the old man’s eye and how he wanted it gone. And lastly, “There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.” (205) Helps illustrate both characters because the old man is now dead and the narrator was crazy enough to kill to get away from the eye. …show more content…
I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye -not even his -could have detected anything wrong.” helps show the setting because the chamber of the old man had boards.Two quotes that go hand in hand are, “...it was four o’clock- still as dark as midnight.” (206) and “His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily.”(204) because they both showcase how the setting is awfully