Preview

Symbolism In Tell-Tale Heart And Black Cat

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
308 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Symbolism In Tell-Tale Heart And Black Cat
If you were an insane person, would you do anything to proof you aren't insane? In Edgar Allen Poe's short stories “Tell-Tale Heart” and “Black Cat”, Poe creates mood using symbolism, first person point of view and repetition. These two stories have similar and different aspects.

In both stories the eye is a significant symbol. In the Tell-Tale Heart it is what makes the narrator kill the old man and in the Black Cat the missing eye is what reminds him of the old cat and makes him mad at the new cat. Also in the Black Cat the cat itself symbolises that something bad will happen. In the beginning the narrator's wife states that all black cats are witches in disguise. This makes the mood dark and mysterious.

In both stories Poe uses first person
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Tell-Tale Heart Literary Analysis
    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Tell-Tale Heart Literary Analysis

    The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, is an amazing piece of Gothic Literature. It’s genre can mostly be interpreted as a Horror or short story. There are multiple settings to this story, the first one is the narrator's. In the home him and an old man are living together. The other setting is an prison/insane asylum where the narrator is telling the story.…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    An Analysis Of The Narrator In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart
    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages

    An Analysis Of The Narrator In Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

    Although readers who have read Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Tell-Tale Heart," have stated the narrator is insane, a closer look shows that he is actually sane by means of nervousness, patience, and murder.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing Poe's A Tell-Tale Heart And A & P
    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Comparing Poe's A Tell-Tale Heart And A & P

    A Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe is a short story about 2 men, one young one old, who live in a house together. The story is told by the young man though his point of view. He begins to tell us how he is mentally ill, but that he isn’t as mad as others say he is. He tries to convince us that he is sane, but by doing that he only furthers our doubts of his claims. He then goes on to tell us how the older man he lives with has an eye that looks at him in a way he does not like, and that it is almost like the eye of a vulture. He reveals his plans to kill the old man so that he may close the eye forever. He tells us about how he slips into the old mans room every night and watched him as he slept. On the seventh night, as he is in the man’s room, the man wakes up and his eye is revealed.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Tell-Tale Heart: An Analysis
    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Tell-Tale Heart: An Analysis

    The Tell-Tale Heart begins with the narrator explaining to the reader that he is nervous but not mad. But yet he confesses that he killed an old man, and then he explains that he killed him for one reason. The old man’s pale blue eye. He explains that he wants nothing from the old man; he had never done anything wrong towards the narrator. Whenever the eye of the old man lands on the narrator he gets nervous. So he decided to get rid of the eye. So for a week or so, the narrator would open the door to the old man’s room very gently. After having opened the door wide enough for his head to pop-in, he would put in a lantern that has no lights on. And once his body is full in he would slowly turn the lantern on so that there is a single thin ray of light. He would then look at the maddening eye which was always closed. So it…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Compare And Contrast Tell Tale Heart And The Black Cat
    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Compare And Contrast Tell Tale Heart And The Black Cat

    “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” are both very similar in writing technique and multiple plot characteristics, but there also some differences as well. One of the main differences between these two short stories is the way the reader finds out the ending of the plot. In “The Black Cat”, the narrator tells that he has committed a crime at the beginning of the story by saying “But tomorrow I die, and to-day I would unburden my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events.” The reader finds out that the man is writing his confession of a crime that he is sentenced to death for, but the reader does not find out what the crime is, or any details about…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Tell Tale Heart Vs Raven
    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Tell Tale Heart Vs Raven

    First, both narrators are scared of an”evil” eye. In The Raven the narrator is scared of the bird’s eye however, in the Tell-Tale Heart the narrator is scared of the old man’s eye. We can tell both narrators are scared of the eye by reading the middle stanzas of the narrative poem and the short story. Then, both narrators have fear and distress. In the Tell-Tale Heart we can tell the narrator had fear and distress in the middle of the short story where he says he stays up at night to watch the old man sleep, he has fear of getting caught. Last, both use internal rhyme to make things more confusing. Internal rhyme happens in most of the narrative poem and the short story.…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Good Verses Evil in Day Verses Night
    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Good Verses Evil in Day Verses Night

    In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” (1843) the narrator explains his hatred for an old man’s eye and why he feels the need to kill him to rid himself of the eye. He tries to convince readers of his saneness but as the plot progresses, the readers realize how unreliable the narrator is in telling his story. The readers realize that he is, in fact, insane, despite the narrator denying any madness. He cites his calmness in recounting the story and precision in ridding himself of the eye to prove his sanity. Poe uses light and dark imagery in day and night to symbolize good and evil in the narrator’s mental instability; he appears sane during the day but as night falls, his insanity becomes obvious to the readers.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe Comparison
    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Edgar Allen Poe Comparison

    stories show you the thoughts of the narrator and the way they understand or make sense of what they are doing or something that had happened. The main characters are both insane and try to convince us that they are not. In the Tell Tale Heart you can see he is insane by his obsession with the old mans “vulture eye”. The old mans eye,was in his mind, evil and the only reason the old man had to die. Another example of his insanity was him being worried about the neighbors hearing the old mans heartbeat that was actually his own. He also believes he can hear heaven and hell which is impossible. In The Black Cat the narrator begins to abuse his wife and pets, the ones “he loved so much” and later believes the cat is haunting him. He is also very unclear for example he says there is a second cat but that cat just happens to look just like the first did.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Fear And Obsession In Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe
    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Fear And Obsession In Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe

    In the stories “Tell-Tale Heart” and “Masque of Red Death”, there are many significant symbols. In the “Tell-Tale Heart” an important symbol is the old man’s eye. The narrator obsessed with the eye because he thought the…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Examples Of Insanity In The Tell Tale Heart
    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Examples Of Insanity In The Tell Tale Heart

    In the story “The tell-tale heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, insanity is portrayed right in the beginning. The author allows the reader to see from the beginning to the end the insanity of the man. This story is told in first person and it becomes a problem throughout the story. The narrator becomes an unreliable narrator. The reader cannot fully trust the narrator, and believe he is telling the whole truth. Throughout the story, the man tries to tell or impose on the reader that he is sane. He tries to explain to the reader that if he were crazy would he do something that a normal person would do or say. Throughout, the reader can see the different levels of insanity the author is trying to portray.…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe's Insanity
    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe's Insanity

    Poe's major element of gothic literature, which establishes the main theme of insanity, is the use of abnormal psychological behavior. The narrator proves his insanity at the very…

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Tell Tale Heart Literary Analysis
    • 1396 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Tell Tale Heart Literary Analysis

    Villains and heroes are the fabric of human culture. These sides of good and evil are seen in books, films, and everywhere in-between. For example, an iconic figure in American pop culture is the superhero, Superman. On the other side, villains such as Lizzie Borden, and the narrator from The Tell-Tale Heart allude to humanities dark side. The significance of villains and heroes are they encompass society’s hopes and fears. The rise of a hero represents a possible bright future, but an evil villain entails our dark past and possible dark future. The important characteristics of villains are that they spread fear and cause harm, meanwhile heroes are saviors who put others above themselves, have attributes we wish we had and that is why heroes…

    • 1396 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Tell Tale Heart
    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Tell Tale Heart

    A widely acclaimed author named Edgar Allan Poe is known for his bizarre stories on murderers, madmen and mysterious women. In his short story, “The Tell Tale Heart”, the narrator leads us through his thoughts on himself and the actions he took on the old man. The narrator cunningly devised a plan to kill an old man because of his vulture-looking eye. For him, the eye was very disturbing and he decided to forever get rid of it. He doesn’t even find himself mad for doing so. Isn’t it funny how the insane never admit to them being crazy? “The Tell Tale Heart” shows us a fine example of how insane people view themselves and what we think of them as. Thus, this essay will elaborate on the differences between the narrator’s perception of himself and the reader’s perception of him.…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe and Insanity
    • 3424 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe and Insanity

    In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator, tormented by the old man whom he lives with, ultimately murders the poor innocent man. The narrator has no real rational motive for killing the old man; actually, he confesses to loving the old man. The narrator admits that there was “no object” nor “passion” for killing the old man because he “had never wronged [him]. He had never given [him] insult” and “for his gold [he] had no desire” (Poe, “Tell-Tale” 445). The narrator is not even sure to what his motive was. He thinks it was the old man’s “pale blue eye, with the film over it” (Poe, “Tell-Tale” 445). The narrator detested the cloudy film over his pale blue eyes so much that when he saw it, his “ blood ran cold; and so by degrees--very gradually” that made him make “up [his] mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid [himself] of the eye forever” (Poe, “Tell-Tale” 445). He becomes obsessed with this old man’s vulture like eye, believing that the eye is cursed. The narrator describes the eye…

    • 3424 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Tell-Tale Heart': A Literary Analysis
    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Tell-Tale Heart': A Literary Analysis

    Out of the three short stories “Tell Tale Heart”, “Yellow Wallpaper”, and “Strawberry Spring”, “Tell Tale Heart” did the best at establishing the characters mental state. This is due to the fact that it is plain as day that the character is insane from the beginning; but he gets more and more insane as the story progresses.…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More