The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe: 3 of the Modern Age literary elements used: Detailed exposition, Interest in the inner-mind(psychoanalysis), and Suspense

Essay by baddash10High School, 12th gradeA+, February 2005

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The Tell-Tale Heart was written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1843 and is considered one of the finest stories of psychological horror. A man becomes obsessed with a vulture-like eye and tells very descriptively of his methods in how he got rid of the man. In the end, his madness drives him into confession. The plot has three main literary elements that contribute to the atmosphere of the story. These characteristics are detailed exposition, interest in the inner mind, and suspense.

Poe uses exposition almost as far as possible in this story. The man tells of every little detail in how he carefully rid of the old man. Every night for a week, he takes an hour just to open the door enough to see inside the room. Then on the last night, he does the same and takes just enough of the lantern covering away, so that only a sliver of light shows on the eye itself.

After he kills the old man by suffocating him, he spills no blood by getting all of it into the tub. Then he chops up the body and puts it under the floorboards where no one can tell that the boards were taken up. All these details puts a person right into the story and help that person imagine what is taking place.

The man, who is mad, must give all this detail, because he actually is mad. Although, he argues that this only acutes his senses even more. He can hear every sound in Heaven and on Earth and many even in Hell. This madness brought about an obsession over the vulture-like eye that was pale blue with a film over it. The man's blood even runs cold whenever he sees it, and he decides that he must kill the...