Writers can use many tricks to make a story seem more interesting to the reader. From the words they pick to the setting to the time of the day… the possibilities are endless. In the story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, the use of light and darkness, the description of the mans eye and the time frame make the story more scary than anything else. Poe also uses suspense at the end to make the readers heart beat faster.
The speaker starts the story out by explaining that he doe not hate the old man that he is about to kill. In fact he even says that he loves him and that he has always been nice to him. The reason he must kill him however is because of what he calls his evil eye. When he describes it one can only have the feel of disgust just imaging it. “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it” (Poe, 1). In the way that the reader describes the eye one gets the impression that the eyes looks as if it dead, maybe making the speaker feel that he has the right to kill the man.
The next trick that Poe uses and probably the most interesting is the use of lightness and darkness. Every time the speaker goes into the room to look at the man he always describes the room as being pitch black. Even he takes extra precautions so as not to give off any light into the room. When he goes into the room, he takes a lantern with him but keeps it covered. The only time the lantern gets to shine is when the speaker wants to look at the mans face. Even with this he only shines “…a single thin ray…upon the vulture eye” (Poe, 2). It seems interesting that all of the reader’s deeds must be performed in the dark almost as if he is ashamed of what he …
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…r night and just watch the man.
Not only does the waiting let the reader know about the killer’s seriousness but it also questions his sanity. From the begging of the story the speaker is trying to convince the reader that he has justification in wanting this man to die because of his dead eye. The way that he waits up night after night and watches this man reflects that of a stalker. And at the end when he pulls the boards from the floor to reveal the old man’s hacked body, he says he did it because the old mans heart kept on beating and the sound was getting to him. One cannot help but think is this the story of a killer or a mad man?
This reading leaves many unanswered questions about the speaker and what his real intentions behind killing the old man might have been. However, what it does not leave to the imagination is much room for any more horror.
Contrasting Old Mother Savage and The Tell-Tale Heart
Contrasting Old Mother Savage and The Tell-Tale Heart
Writers may use different techniques to get the same effect out of the audience. In the short story, “Old Mother Savage” by Guy Du Maupassant, a tragic story of a woman who losses everything is told. The story is scary in that it has an ending that one would not expect. Also, it can be looked at as a sad story because the mother seems to be sad throughout the entire story. At the end the only thing that she has to be satisfied about is that her murdering four young men can make other women feel how she felt when she found out about the death of her son. This story can be compared to Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, when you talk about the strategies that both authors use to make the audience frightened. They both describe scenes in full detail to give the effect of disgust. However, Du Maupassant, makes the audience feel sorry for the mother in this story turning it into a tragedy instead of horror.
The story starts out with two men walking through a forest. One of the men recognizes an abandoned house. The house is described as “…a skeleton still standing, yet ruined and sinister” (Du Maupassant, 1). The speaker asks the man he is walking with what happened to the people who lived in it. The other starts explaining that the father was killed and that during the war, the son was sent to fight leaving the mother by herself. It was said that no one bothered her since everyone in the town thought she had money. It was said that she hardly ever laughed, but that was normal for women of that time: “The women suffer with sad and restricted souls, their life being solemn and hard” (Du Maupassant, 2). With this thought in mind it seems as if the peopl…
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…t the woman as being a hero. She is what we consider a “good guy” not because she has killed innocent people, but because she has taken charge of a situation, which is out of the ordinary for women to do. This is a far contrast from Poes’ ending. In his story the speaker confesses to killing the old man because the mans’ heart, which at that point the reader knows is the speakers conscious is annoying him. At the end of his story the audience is glad that the speaker is caught.
Both “Old Mother Savage”, by Guy Du Maupassant and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, by Edgar Allen Poe, offer a look into the other side of tragedies. In both we get to see the reasoning behind the killings of innocent people. The difference between the two is in one case the audience is left feeling sad for the killer, while in the other we are glad that justice is served.