“The Tell Tale Heart”

Some examples of Literary Techniques/

Figurative Language

within Poe’s famous short story

Figurative Language

• Language that cannot be taken literally; the words mean something BEYOND what they say so…

YOU HAVE TO “FIGURE” OUT THEIR MEANING

Alliteration

• The repetition of certain sounds (consonance/assonance).• “Hearken! And observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.”

Consonance

• Consonance is a poetic device characterized by the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession, as in "pitter patter" or in "all mammals named Sam are clammy".

• “I heard all things in heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.”

Personification• Giving attributes/qualities of a human being to an animal,

object, or concept.

“Death in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim.”

Death is not a person, and therefore could not literally stalk anyone, but presenting it as a predator creates a sinister mood.

“For it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye.”

Simile

• A comparison of two unlike things using like or as

• “So I opened it – you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily – until at length a single dim ray like the thread of the spider shot out from the crevice and fell upon the vulture eye”.

Metaphor

• A comparison between two unlike things WITHOUT using like or as.

• “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture- a pale blue eye, with a film over it.

FYI-- Glaucoma- eye disease that could lead to partial or complete loss

of vision

Irony

• Something unexpected occurs• Literary technique that involves

surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions

• “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.”

Understatement- the opposite of hyperbole

• “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever. Now this is the point. You fancy me mad.”

• At this point, the reader already thinks this is the understatement of the century.

Symbolism

• A symbol can be anything that stands for something else.

• In literature, a symbol can have deeper meaning.

Symbolism• The narrator mentions a watch four times in the story.

A watch is a visual and auditory representation of time. The watch watches time, and tells tales of time. Time can also be said to be watching death, up ahead in the distance. Each tick of the watch symbolizes a movement closer to the inevitable death that all humans face. Poe presents this subtly in the story's first mention of the watch: "A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine"

Symbolism

• This lantern is pretty cool. You can burn a candle or oil in it (doesn't say which in the story), but it has hinged panels that can be adjusted to let in as much or as little light as you want. The narrator keeps most of the light hidden, only allowing one "ray" to escape. This lantern is the narrator's weapon against the old man's eye. That's what we see on the eighth night – the lantern and the eye in a stare-down. It also suggests that sometimes there is light hiding in the darkest places. If we can figure our how to get our lanterns open, we can see it. Can you find any hidden light in this dark tale?

Symbolism

• The bed in "The Tell-Tale Heart" symbolizes the opposite of what beds and bedrooms should be about normally. The narrator violates all bedroom etiquette, by exploiting the vulnerability of one who is sleeping. We are perhaps most vulnerable in bed, and we sleep well when we feel safe in our bedrooms. Poe turns the symbol of the bed on its head. The narrator uses the bed as a weapon to snuff out the old man. And since the bed is the murder weapon, it's logical that the bedroom is the burial place. Creepy.

HOMEWORK

• Does anyone have an example that they did for homework last night that wasn’t on this Powerpoint? Please raise your hand and share your example with the class.