The Tell Tale Heart Literary Analysis

No name Wit“The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed-not dulled them.” (p.265) “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a story told by, and only by the narrator, whom is the main character. In the story the narrator appears to have lost his/her mind, despite the constant and ever-present assurances that he/she is perfectly and infallibly sane. Although to contradict what the narrator says the narrator has a strong vibe of insanity around himself/herself, this is due to the brutal murder of the old man, whom the narrator lives with. In the story the narrator perceives that the killing of the old man was a just killing, because the narrator claims to be cursed by the old man’s vulture eye-which was not an evil vulture eye at all, but he was either blind in that one eye or he had a cataract in the eye. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe uses POV, Imagery, and Irony, and many others-but the essay is about the irony, imagery, and point of view. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” Poe sets a tone of menace in the story, as a reminder to the reader that the narrator poses an imminent and …show more content…
As an example to prove the opening statement the narrator states the following on page 266, “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.” The statement made by the narrator is ironic because who would be kinder to a person that they were about to kill? Thus proves the statement is ironic, usually if a person was about to kill someone the killer would probably be cold, and distant to the person, or the killer wouldn’t change their behavior around them at all. Since the narrator informs the reader that the narrator has never, ever been kinder to the old man throughout the whole week before he killed him seems quite odd, and it adheres to the earlier statement of how it is ironic. Thus proving the theory of irony, and mildly states the tone of