Teagan Hawes
Author’s Craft Essay
In life, humanity needs to see past the surface of others, or they will face the pain of guilt later on. Guilt. This is a word that can weigh down on your shoulders like a 50 pound dumbell. Having a guilty conscience can make one go insane and feel an immense amount of paranoia! This is evident in the short story, “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, where the narrator has an obsession with an old man’s eye--an eye that brought great agony among the narrator whenever he looked upon it. He couldn’t bare seeing that eye any longer, thus, in a merciless manner, he decided to kill the old man because of it. Feeling great remorse by the end of the story, the narrator becomes paranoid and scared. As suggested …show more content…
The narrator says, “...but the noise steadily increased...it grew louder--louder--louder! Was it possible they heard not?--no, no! They heard--they suspected!--they knew!--they were making a mockery of my horror...and now again! Hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!” This passage from the text is impactful because creates a tense mood. Because the reader can see how the narrator is thinking through this time, and how his guilt is getting to his head, it makes the mood tense. Since the narrator is the only person who hears his heart beating, out of paranoia, he believes it is getting louder and louder. Now, it can be inferred that the beating was getting more intense just because he was nervous, but certainly not loud enough for the police officers to hear. Later, The reader wonders if the officers will become suspicious. To compare, think of a time when you were nervous, and you noticed your heart beginning to beat louder every second. Did you feel like others around you could hear it too? There is a likely chance that they couldn’t, and you were just overwhelmed. Additionally, the story states, “And this I did for seven long nights--every night, just at midnight--but 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...every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.” As suggested by the text, this scene clearly exemplifies a mysterious mood. Why is the narrator bothered by the eye so much? Why would he kill him just because of one small addition to the human body? The mysterious mood provokes questions in the reader, so he/she will wonder when the narrator will finally strike and murder the old man. As the reader dives deep into the text, they can see that the mood creates the setting, which really has an important impact on the story--more important than one would think from just reading over the
Author’s Craft Essay
In life, humanity needs to see past the surface of others, or they will face the pain of guilt later on. Guilt. This is a word that can weigh down on your shoulders like a 50 pound dumbell. Having a guilty conscience can make one go insane and feel an immense amount of paranoia! This is evident in the short story, “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, where the narrator has an obsession with an old man’s eye--an eye that brought great agony among the narrator whenever he looked upon it. He couldn’t bare seeing that eye any longer, thus, in a merciless manner, he decided to kill the old man because of it. Feeling great remorse by the end of the story, the narrator becomes paranoid and scared. As suggested …show more content…
The narrator says, “...but the noise steadily increased...it grew louder--louder--louder! Was it possible they heard not?--no, no! They heard--they suspected!--they knew!--they were making a mockery of my horror...and now again! Hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!” This passage from the text is impactful because creates a tense mood. Because the reader can see how the narrator is thinking through this time, and how his guilt is getting to his head, it makes the mood tense. Since the narrator is the only person who hears his heart beating, out of paranoia, he believes it is getting louder and louder. Now, it can be inferred that the beating was getting more intense just because he was nervous, but certainly not loud enough for the police officers to hear. Later, The reader wonders if the officers will become suspicious. To compare, think of a time when you were nervous, and you noticed your heart beginning to beat louder every second. Did you feel like others around you could hear it too? There is a likely chance that they couldn’t, and you were just overwhelmed. Additionally, the story states, “And this I did for seven long nights--every night, just at midnight--but 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...every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.” As suggested by the text, this scene clearly exemplifies a mysterious mood. Why is the narrator bothered by the eye so much? Why would he kill him just because of one small addition to the human body? The mysterious mood provokes questions in the reader, so he/she will wonder when the narrator will finally strike and murder the old man. As the reader dives deep into the text, they can see that the mood creates the setting, which really has an important impact on the story--more important than one would think from just reading over the