The Tell-Tale Heart: Tone Analysis

The Tell-Tale Heart Tone Analysis Essay In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator tries to convince the reader that he is not nervous. The narrator creates a sense of horror and psychological thriller in his short story. He has a personality of a psychotic person where he is angry and paranoid. He also has a guilt of murder he caused the old man he took care of for many years. Poe exposes the dark side of human kind and how evil someone could be. He starts creating a menacing tone by starting a dramatic opening and by using repetition. He is also very descriptive on how things are in the room. For example he says, “I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart,” he uses irony in the sentence portraying himself as a psychotic person and this increases a menacing tone because normal people usually do not act like him increasing madness. Poe’s use of horrific diction, dark imagery, and figurative language created a distinct menacing tone in his short story because the words of imagery remind the readers of fear of death by a psychotic person. He uses an auditory pattern by including the noises of the man’s groan. At first, he reveled in the old man's terror but with every moment that he heard that beating sound his fury grew more and more. The more nervous he became, the faster and louder the beating sound became. One use of personification would be when he says, “All in vain because Death in approaching him, had stalked with is black shadow…” the narrator is comparing death to a person in order to increase the menacing tone my suggesting that death is stalking.