Response to Literature on Tell-Tale Heart

"Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold." (Edgar Allan Poe, page 626.) This quote puts a ludicrous feeling in you about the story right away. You can tell that the story is going to be very suspenseful and you are going to linger with anticipation. The narrator insists that his mental disease has sharpened, not dulled, his senses. He tells the tale of how an old man who lives in his house has never wronged him. For an unknown reason, the old man's cloudy, pale blue eye has incited madness in the narrator. When the old man looks at the narrator, his blood runs cold. Therefore, he is determined to kill the old man to get ride of the curse. Tell-Tale Heart by, Edgar Allan Poe displays detailed and complete imagery, a crazy plot, and fascinating characterizations.

The descriptive imagery in Tell-Tale Heart was outstanding and helped draw the reader into the amazing instances of the story. "His room was as black as pitch with thick darkness. " (Edgar Allan Poe, page 626.) The setting and inventive characterizations portrayed through imagery, were full of mysterious and explicable statements and remarks."He had the eye of a vulture- a pale blue eye." (Edgar Allan Poe, page 625.) This quote can easily be imagined in your mind and it is smoothly illustrated. I feel that this cite is important because the first person narrator is obviously mad about the "Evil Eye " by how he explains the imagery of the gaze. "His eye chilled the very marrow in my bones." (Edgar Allan Poe, page 627.) This was a very interesting and exhilarating quote in the story. The old man's eye caused the madman so much grief and the narrator could not handle the intolerable pain of the eye. The imagery in this story was amazing and it was very exciting and perplexing.

The interesting plot in the story was very creative and puzzling. It made the reader want to keep deeply analyzing the thrilling narrative. "I looked in upon him while he slept." (Edgar Allan Poe, page 626.) This dramatic rising action was insane. The creepy eye caused the narrator to feel frustrated, for this reason he watched him stealthily every night. "For a whole hour, I did not move a single muscle." (Edgar Allan Poe, page 626.) This was a very exciting and exhilarating part of the plot in the story. The old man thought something was in his room, for he heard a faint noise, and little did he know the madman was standing there in his way. "I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room." (Edgar Allan Poe, page 628.) "After awhile he finally made his deathly, cautious, and fearless move. You could tell that the narrator was being surreptitious and secret by all the quotes mentioned above.

The creative characterizations in Edgar Allan Poe's story were very thorough and informative, which made the story come alive. "Every night around midnight I turned the latch of his door and opened it." (Edgar Allan Poe, page 626.) This quote showed the reader that the narrator was insane and mentally ill. He entered the old man's room every night studying and trying to make a plan. "I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him." (Edgar Allan Poe, page 626.) This cite was very interesting. It proved that the narrator was indeed a loony madman. "I admit the deed! _ tear up the planks_ here here! _ it is the beating of his hideous heart!" (Edgar Allan Poe, page 630.) Obviously, you can tell that the psycho narrator could not take the intolerable bearing act no longer, so he admitted his wrong. I think this was an important quote because it shows that the narrator, in the end, was still a madman, but one with a heart that could no longer sustain the guilt.

"Thick darkness," "vulture eye," and "hideous heart" are three images that Edgar Allan Poe used in The Tell-Tale Heart to simulate a reader's senses. Poe wanted the reader to see and feel a suspenseful and exciting story. He used the concrete imagery rather than vague abstract words to describe settings and people. "For a whole hour, I did not move a muscle and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down." (Edgar Allan Poe, page 626.) This quote shows that his plot was mysterious and interesting. I enjoyed the thrilling anticipation for what was going to occur next. The creative characterizations in Poe's story was also very compelling and captivating. He made the story come alive while being audacious and original. I hope Edgar Allan Poe writes more short stories similar to this one because it really caught my attention.