The formal definition of terror is extreme fear. While the formal definition for horror is an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. Horror and terror are similar but they are also extremely different. They both give a type of feeling of fear. Where horror is something that gives more of a feeling of disgust and terror is when someone is completely fearful for their life. Gothic literature embodies both horror and terror. Edgar Allen Poe is known as the father of gothic literature. Each of his stories or poems are dark and horrific. Terror and horror can be seen through poems like “The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, “Lenore”, and short stories like “The Tell-Tale Heart.” To begin, Poe uses his poem “The Raven” to inflict both terror and horror. …show more content…
The narrator has lost his wife Lenore. The raven shows up to the narrator house and will not leave. This is because the narrator is now living with a large amount of sorrow from the loss of his wife. Poe is able to use the raven as a symbol of death and sorrow because much like how the raven will not leave the narrator neither will the pain and sorrow he feels for Lenore’s death will not leave the narrator’s life either. This clearly depicts terror because the narrator is fearful he will never see happiness in his life again and a time where is not mourning the death of his wife, Lenore. The raven repeatedly says the word “nevermore” to the narrator and makes is seem as the raven will never leave the narrator alone. As the raven continues to refuse to leave the terror and horror inside the narrator builds. Poe also builds the feeling of terror by the imagery he depicts. He depicts a dark, late, dreary night, in December. The month of December also symbolizes death. This adds to the narrators feeling of terror. In addition, Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” also imposes horror and terror. This poem is also about the death of a girl and the speaker mourns the death of his young bride, Annabel Lee. The clearest depiction of horror in “Annabel Lee” is after Annabel Lee died the speaker went and laid by her body because he missed her so much. His loss encourages him to proclaim that jealous angels caused Annabel Lee’s death to separate the young couple. The speaker reveals that he has not been able to accept their separation and has been spending night after night at her tomb. For many people the thought of lying beside a corps is repulsive, but Poe uses the mind set to display how true their love is and the heartbreak and how the situation is horrific and sad. Then, Poe’s poem “Lenore” is also about a young girl who died too young. The horror in this poem is that the man she loves has to live without her. He has to go through life knowing he lost his love at such an early age. Poe’s use of gothic diction supports his gothic theme. Poe states “By you--by yours, the evil eye, --by yours, the slanderous tongue That did to death the innocent that died, and died so young?” (Line 11-12). Poe uses these lines to show the true horror behind a woman dying so young and innocent. Lastly, Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” uses the gothic themes to create feelings of terror, horror, and other dark emotions.
The narrator, a murderer, loathes an old man’s pale blue eye so much he decides to kill the man so he no longer has to look at them. Before the narrator kills his victim, he terrorizes him. One example of this is when the narrator states, “every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept” (Poe 715). Poe uses this example to depict the creepy, terror by watching the man sleep just waiting to kill him. Another example of terror is before the narrator kills the man he scares him while they both stand in the dark. The darkness is enough to scare any people, especially after hearing a noise. After the speaker murders his victim, he savagely chops up the body “First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs” (Poe 717). This is horrifying and occurred for the sole reason that the man’s eye terrorized the narrator. In this short story, it is more terrorizing than horrifying because the victim is anticipating something bad that has not yet happened. Poe is able to depict stories that are extremely dark and that will leave the reader with a feeling of
terror. Terror and horror can be seen through works such as; “The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, “Lenore”, and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” However, feelings of terror and horror are not the feelings most people would choose to endure. Though there are many circumstances that happen throughout life where it is inevitable to experience these feelings. Edgar Allan Poe was able to use his personal experiences of horror and terror to create the genre of gothic literature. Gothic literature represents both horror and terror and Poe was able to capture that in each of his works and able to clearly depict the difference between the two.
At first it seems the narrator is simply personifying death. He's also referring to himself as Death. The narrator is the stalker in the dark shown in the quote, "All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim." (Poe 5) In an article titled Poe's THE TELL-TALE HEART, by: Pritchard, Hollie, Explicator "The narrator seems proud of carrying out his crime. He brags about "how healthily--how calmly [he] can tell you the whole story" (Poe 303)... it is not surprising that the narrator admits
The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” murders an elderly man because he is fearful of the man’s “evil eye.” “He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (Poe 37). The narrator explains that he is haunted by the man’s eye and the only way to
The narrator loved the old man, he had nothing against the poor old man. (Poe,pg 104) As the narrator says, “I loved the old”. If the narrator had nothing against the old man, why did he murder him? My client murdered the old man because he was hallucinating. A normal person wouldn’t murder someone if they don’t have anything against them. He was also hallucinating because a typical person wouldn’t murder another human because of their eye. The narrator declares (Poe,pg 104) “for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye”. This reason of murdering someone is not equitable. In addition, by the end of the story the narrator acts as if he is hallucinating. “I know grew very pale...Yet the sound increased-and what could I do?...It grew louder-louder!” Obviously this was inside the narrator’s head, the police officers couldn’t hear the heart beating because the narrator spieled (Poe,pg 107) “the officers heard it not”. The narrator also declares (Poe,pg 107) “that sound would be heard by a neighbour”. This quote confirms my client also thought that the neighbours will hear the heartbeat, that was inside his head. My client took these major steps because he was hallucinating the whole time. These hallucinations prove his insanity.
The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator realizes that he absences a reason for killing the old man he lives with. He even starts to admit having to love the man. He states, “There was no reason for what I did. I did not hate the old man; I even loved him. He had never hurt me. I did not want his money. I think it was his eye” (Poe 64). Psychosis is seen in the difficult rationality the narrator uses to defend his murder. The logic the narrator provides is that he thinks the desire to murder the old man results from the man’s eye, which bothers him. He says, “When the old man looked at me with his vulture eye a cold feeling went up and down my back; even my blood became cold. And so, I finally decided I had to kill the old man and close that eye forever!” (Poe 65). The fact that by this man’s eye is what makes him very angry is such a irrelevant reason for the narrator to kill him. This proves that he is not mentally stable, anyone in their right state of mind would not want to commit such a crime due to an irritation of someone’s eye. This represents the idea that this narrator expresses his complete lack of sanity through the premeditation and planning he put into committing the murder. In the beginning of the story, he says “vulture eye” giving the impression that he is uncertain that the eye is the reason for the murder, he also says how he thinks it’s the eye, he uses past tense as opposed to declaring with certainty that this is why the killing of the man. This shows the contrast to how as a sane person would be sure that this is their reason for killing another person before committing.
On page one, the text says “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture -- a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.” The narrator’s apparent unease about the old man’s eye supports the idea that this eye represents fear, as the phrase “my blood ran cold” is an idiom used to describe somebody when they are frightened. So, by Edgar Allan Poe using this literary device, the reader can definitely see how the “Evil Eye” represents fright. Also on page 1, the text states “... I found the eye always closed, and so it was impossible to do the work, for it was not the old man who vexed me but his Evil Eye.” Primarily, by calling this eye the “Evil Eye”, it shows the narrator already considered the eye to be bad without really completely knowing it. When people think of evil, they usually associate it with fear. So, by him calling the eye what he does, it shows that he dreads it. Lastly, on page two, the text says “It was open, wide, wide open, and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness -- all a dull blue with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones, but I could see nothing else of the old man’s face or person, for I had directed the ray as if by instinct precisely upon the damned spot.” Words such as
In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, there are only five characters mentioned in the story: the narrator, the old man, and three police officers, none of whom is ever named. Throughout the story, the narrator tells the audience over and over that he is not mad. He becomes obsessed with trying to prove that he is not a madman and eventually goes crazy in the end. He tells the story of how he kills the old man after seven nights of watching him sleep. He has nothing against the old man and actually likes him, but it is the old man’s pale blue eye with a film over it that overwhelms the narrator with anger. This is when he decides to rid of this “vulture eye,” by murdering the old man. After finally finishing what he had set out to do, three policemen show up because of a complaint about a shriek. The narrator assures them that it was him that had shrieked because of a nightmare and asks the officers to sit with him. While talking with them, confident that they knew nothing, he starts to hear a noise increasingly get louder. He eventually cannot take it anymore and
The narrator believes he is justified in killing the old man because the man has an Evil Eye. The narrator claims the old man's eye made his blood run cold and the eye looked as if it belonged to a vulture. Poe shows the narrator is insane because the narrators' actions bring out the narrative irony used in "The Tell Tale Heart".... ... middle of paper ...
“I think it was his eye! yes it was this”(Poe 41). Murdering an individual because of his/her eye might seem too bizarre, but that was the case in Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”. An unnamed narrator was very disturbed by an old man’s eye, which he described it as “The eye of vulture- a pale blue eye, with a film over it”(Poe 41), and decided to murder him to eliminate it. The narrator had many failed attempts trying to murder the old man during many nights while he was asleep, but when he finally had the opportunity, he smothered him to death using a bed and dismembered him. Another fascinating short story by Poe that is similar to the “The Tell-Tale Heart” is called “The Black Cat” were, this time, an animal is harshly
Death, despair, and revenge, these three words form a treacherous triangle to any reader who dare enter the mind of Edgar Allen Poe. In many of his works these expressions seem to form a reoccurring theme. Comparing the works "The Mask of the Red Death" and "The Cask of Amontillado", we will discuss these themes while analyzing the method behind Poe’s madness.
The man was haunted by the old man's pale blue eye, he could not stand it and every night at midnight he would look in on him as he slept, wondering when he would get a chance to kill him. On one of these soundless nights at midnight the mad man decided to do more than just peek his head in, he raced into the room and stabbed the old man before he could finish his final shriek and it was on that day that he admitted to the deed as the police roamed the house looking for the murderer. The suspense is this story is caused by the mad man explaining his feelings about the old man's pale blue eye, which lets the reader foreshadow the upcoming events in the story. “He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it, whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually-- I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” (E.A. Poe page #1) The consequence of not having this quote in the story would make it hard to understand what the mad man did not like about the old man, thus taking away key details that defined the meaning of the story. In turn it is easy to see that the relationships between cause and effect are present in both
The Gothic dimensions of Poe’s fictional world offered him a way to explore the human mind in extreme situations, and so arriving at an essential truth. The Gothic theme of the importance of the intuitive and emotional and the rejection of the rational and intellectual is prevalent throughout The Raven, The Black Cat, and The Tell-Tale Heart. This is coupled with the convention of transgressive, encroaching insanity, ubiquitous in Gothic literature. In The Tell-Tale Heart, a kind of psychological doubling is achieved by the narrator- an identification with the old man at the time of disturbing him in the middle of the night, and a psychopathic detachment, evidenced by the feeling of triumph and elation that precedes the murder in the extract “..so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror”. Hysteria is pertinent in Gothic texts, an...
At the end of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe’s fascination with death is apparent when the narrator ruthlessly killed an old man with a disturbing eye, but felt so guilty that he confessed to the police. The narrator dismembered the old man’s body and hid them in the floor, confident that they were concealed. However, when the police came to investigate, the narrator heard a heart beating and began to crack under the pressure. Overcome with guilt, he confessed that he murdered him and pulled up the floorboards. The narrator exclaimed, “But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision!” (“Heart” 4). Although the narrator was calm and confident at first, the guilt he experienced drove him mad, causing...
The first element Edgar used the most in his short stories is horror. Horror is an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting. As you are reading his poems his description often make so that you begin to feel the pain and sorrow that is happening. In his story “The Fall of the House o...
The fixation on the old man's vulture-like eye forces the narrator to concoct a plan to eliminate the old man. The narrator confesses the sole reason for killing the old man is his eye: "Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees - very gradually - I made up my mind to rid myself of the eye for ever" (34). The narrator begins his tale of betrayal by trying to convince the reader he is not insane, but the reader quickly surmises the narrator indeed is out of control. The fact that the old man's eye is the only motivation to murder proves the narrator is so mentally unstable that he must search for justification to kill. In his mind, he rationalizes murder with his own unreasonable fear of the eye.
...o allows the reader to feel, see and hear just how insane the narrator really is. The eye of the old man symbolizes the “evil” thoughts in the narrator’s mind that leads to the murder. The heartbeat symbolizes the “guilt” the narrator feels when he confesses to his guilty conscious. The watch symbolizes the guilt the narrator has for the time of the murder. All these elements are required in order to fully understand the narrator’s mind in his story. Readers enjoy all kinds of works, including a horrifying thriller. Poe allowed his readers in this short story to visualize and feel what the narrator felt during his plot to murder this old man he loved. Edgar Allan Poe is a great American Literature author that has put all this literary devices into his work knowing that the readers will have got into the mind of the narrator and enjoyed a great piece of history.