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The Tell Tale Heart Irony Analysis

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The Tell Tale Heart Irony Analysis
In the short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the author, Edgar Allen Poe, uses irony to achieve and sustain suspense and horror for his readers. One example of irony(dramatic) is when the narrator repeatedly claims to be sane, but we become more and more certain that he is insane. “If you still think me mad, you will no longer when I describe to you the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body...First of all, I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs”(¶12). It is dramatic irony since the readers can understand that he is insane but he can’t see it. It builds the suspense and horror because the man thinking he is sane makes him seem even more insane. In addition, another example of irony(situational)

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