The Tell Tale Heart Language Analysis

Edgar Allen Poe is a very popular name among literature. He has made a ton of remarkable pieces of writing, one being “The Tell-Tale Heart”. This story is remembered by its great use of words and its amazing imagery. In this passage Poe’s use of disturbing diction, tormenting imagery, and figurative language create the tone of menace in the passage, these words and images reminds readers of death, pain, and suffering. In other words, Poe makes disturbing word choices that make the story seem real. He wrote phrases like, “Hearkening to the deathwatches in the wall.” This choice of words proved the narrator with a menacing tone. He later writes, “All in vain; because Death, in approaching him, had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim.” The dark word choices of this line leave the reader with an unsettling feeling. His words like, “black shadow”, “pain”, “grief”, and “death” give off a sinister feel. Through Poe’s word choice he proves …show more content…
In this passage specifically he uses personification in the line, “All in vain; because Death, in approaching him, had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim.” In this line Poe compared death to a man in order to increase the feeling of menace by suggesting that death can sneak upon you, which was showed by the narrator sneaking upon the old man. Other figurative language was shown in the line, “I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at hear.” Here Poe uses something called juxtaposition. The author reveals that the narrator feels both pity and glee. This portrays the narrator as unstable, which increases the feeling of menace because the narrator doesn’t seem to care that the old man is terrified. Poe uses many other examples of this chilling figurative language, including in a metaphor when he compared the groaning coming out of this man to the way blood comes out of a