Tell Tale Heart Figurative Language

If an unsettling shadow was stalking you as you tiptoed through a pitch-black alleyway, would you flee? Would darkness and evil envelope you, sparking fear and alertness? Fear will instinctively warn you of any danger that passes through your short life, potentially saving it. On the contrary, with every opportunity, there comes a consequence. Warped minds, paranoid nights, and twisted emotions are all repercussions of the double edged word: fear. Fear can either cause the obsession with death or survival of hope. The characters in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Masque of Red Death,” experience terror, but each handles it differently, causing a variety of results. Poe weaves symbolism, irony, and figurative language …show more content…
In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the infamous eye spawns fear within the narrator causing obsession and paranoia. “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture...whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold…” said the narrator “...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,” (74). The narrator is immensely revolted by the eye, and he will do anything to eliminate it, even if it means death. Fear can distort a person’s sanity to where logic is overridden with (or by) emotions; negatively transitioning someone’s life to obsession and death. Similarly, Prince Prospero and his followers in the “Masque of Red Death,” allow fear to harmfully impact their lives, by irrationally locking themselves up in Prospero’s castle relishing their “clever” avoidance of death. Poe says, “And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood- bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall,” (61). As the rest of the world suffered from an atrocious epidemic, Prince Prospero and his followers thought they could cannily slip out of Death’s grip by hiding in Prospero’s luxurious, “safe” castle. However, Death snatched each of their lives in the height of Prospero’s masquerade. Poe uses Death as a symbolic figure to convey the severity of …show more content…
In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the old man struggles from the oppressive grasps of evil by hiding in his house. “His room was as black as pitch with thick darkness (for the shutters were closed fastened, through fear of robbers), and so I knew that he couldn't see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily,” said the narrator. The old man is so fearful and paranoid of evil intruding his life that he locks himself up in a dark, “safe” house. Ironically, evil is already inside, taking form as the narrator, plotting to kill him. Death is inevitable, it is everywhere. Death is in every household, classroom, market, and you can never hide from it. What keeps us from death is fear, but what drives us to death is fear. You regulate how much fear runs through your mind, heart, and veins. You determine your fate. You determine your survival. In “The Masque of Red Death,” Prince Prospero allows fear to drive him to his ironic death. Poe says, “It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all...there was a sharp cry...in the death of Prince Prospero,” (61). Prospero perishes from his fear, the red death, in the seventh room. Seven represents holiness and perfection, yet Prospero is viciously