Tell Tale Heart Guilt

“The Tell-Tale Heart”, written by Edgar Allen Poe, suggests that the stories theme is guilt. When a deed is done and guilt is hidden, it will torture the person. The characters of the story include an old man and a younger man living together. The younger man was going mad and murdered the old man because he was bothered by his third eye. The younger man then felt guilty, and confessed the deed. Edgar Allen Poe could have written the story to relate to his own life problems. For example, his wife died around this time and he is dealing with depression. (Mark, Canada) The intended result the author wanted from the audience would be to scare them. Also to make the readers see the death of the old man as if it were them; and to make them connect and feel one with the story.
Therefore, the theme that stood out the …show more content…
(Mark, Canada) He wrote this story around the time of this event. He could have been venting and escaping from the madness in his own life which could have inspired him to write about a man with no name (probably using himself) going through his own version of madness.
Furthermore, Poe could have been writing to frighten his audience. He did this by using words and imagery that would make someone think of darkness and madness. Some of the words he used includes, darkness, haunted, evil, dreadful, death etc. The use of imagery is seen when describing the killing. “In an instant I dragged him to the floor, pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed done.” (pg6) The way he describes it creates the horrific image that, what if someone is lying in bed and suddenly gets dragged out and killed. Even as he describes the moments leading up to death were quite horrific. The thought of a man hiding in darkness, plotting to kill, always spying, is scary itself, it makes the reader wonder and connect with the