Edgar Allen Poe introduces several literary terms throughout his works “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” to connect the reader with the characters, setting, tone, and mood. Poe’s masterful use of diction, allusions, and symbolism throughout “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven” creates an eerie and frantic mood.
Poe’s diction and connotative language are used to develop a setting that evokes an eerie mood in “The Raven”. As the speaker stands alone in the room, watching the “silken, sad” curtains, he exclaims, “The uncertain rustling of each purple curtain filled him with fantastic terrors never felt before” (Poe 13-17) . This stanza adds to the creepy atmosphere. Even The speaker becomes frightened, as the waving of the curtains “filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before” (Poe 1). In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe creates a frantic, spooky mood using diction when the narrator likens himself to a scheming, conniving madman. The narrator explains as he recalls the murder of the old man, “Ha! Would a madman have been so wise as this, And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously-oh, so cautiously –cautiously (for the hinges creaked) –I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye” (Poe 1). Poe’s connotative language, words, and expressions such as “Ha!”, “madman”, “creaked”, “ray” and “vulture eye” all lend to a frenetic pacing and an eerie mood. Poe’s diction helps in the employment of literary devices (assonance, personification, sensory imagery, dramatic irony). This results in the development of intriguing characters, vivid settings, and eerie and frantic moods that add to the suspense.
Poe uses an allusion in “The Tell-Tale Heart” after a neighbour called the police, having heard a stricken scream late at night. When the man opens the door, “There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police” (Poe 2). This is a reference to Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and the three witches. This allusion stimulates an idea or an association for the reader, specifically the three witches from “Macbeth”. In the play “Macbeth”, Lady Macbeth goes through a mental breakdown pertaining to her murder of the king, Duncan. Serving the climax, she says, “Out, damned spot!” (Shakespeare 2). This is similar to when the narrator refers to the old man’s eye as “That damned spot”, he proceeds to lead the police into his room, smug and unphased. In “The Raven”, the speaker asks the Raven if his wife, Lenore, made it to Heaven. When the raven quotes “nevermore”, he angrily dismisses the bird, “Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!” (Poe 92). This is an allusion to the Roman god of the underworld, as he feels living with Hades is comparable to that of living a life without Lenore. Referencing the underworld keeps the eerie mood alive throughout the story.
Symbolism in “The Raven” is in the raven itself. The speaker’s sorrow for his deceased wife is a driving force for the conversation between him and the raven. Sequentially, the raven’s limited vocabulary of “Nevermore”, forces the speaker to face the reality of his wife being gone. Poe states in his conclusion, “And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,” (Poe 108). The raven has become an embodiment of evil for the speaker, a reminder of Lenore, and creates an eerie mood. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” when the man feels the police suspect his murder, he explains the noise he hears “grew louder –louder –louder!” Paranoid, he frets, “Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! –no, no! They heard! –they suspected! –they knew!” (Poe 2). The thumping noise, his heart, is a symbol of the man’s guilt and shame after killing the old man with the vulture eye. The symbol gives the reader an idea of the man’s gradual paranoia and feelings of anxiety.
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