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Examples Of Literary Devices In The Tell Tale Heart

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Examples Of Literary Devices In The Tell Tale Heart
The Tell-Tale Heart: Literary Devices

Suspenseful, nerve-racking, tense, and scary are all words that can be used to describe The Tell-Tale Heart. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe is a dark, eerie story filled with suspense and tension. Anyone who has read this story would be able to describe it using similar words; but that is not all that it is filled with. The Tell-Tale Heart is a horror short story filled with many different literary devices and many examples to go along with them. This essay will be on three of the many literary devices used in this story; imagery, repetition, and humor.
One of the many literary devices used by Poe in this story is imagery. Imagery is used to create a vivid picture in your mind. It allows the reader to visualize the setting and/or actions in the story. Poe uses imagery very frequently in this story. An …show more content…
Humor is used to alleviate a tough situation. An example of humor in The Tell-Tale Heart would be when the narrator was cleaning up the remains of the old man’s dead body. “There was nothing to wash out--no stain of any kind--no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all--ha! ha!” This example explains that there was no blood to be wiped up because it was all in the tub. The humor behind this is when he laughs at the end. Throughout the entire story, the narrator is trying to convince the reader that he is not insane. But doesn’t laughing at the fact that you murdered someone without creating a mess make you a little insane? Where is the humor in taking away someone else’s life? Poe demonstrates the humor in this story in many other ways and they all lead to one assumption; the narrator is insane. Humor is important in the story because it keeps the atmosphere of this story consistent. The way Poe used humor in this story successfully makes the mood tense and makes the reader eager to keep reading due to the suspense they are
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