Gothic Elements in Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-Tale Heart

'The Tell-Tale Heart', a short tale about inner conflict and fixation, exhibits the tormented soul because of a feeling of remorse. The story opens with an anonymous storyteller depicting a man unhinged and tormented with a feeling of remorse for a dangerous demonstration. This man, the storyteller, experiences distrustfulness, and the explanation behind his wrongdoing is exclusively in his upset personality. He becomes focused on the old man’s eye, and his still, small voice drives him to disparage the eye. At last, Poe takes us on an adventure through the arranging and execution of the old man. At last, the killers obsession causes a demise which comes full circle into inward clash because of his feelings of remorse.. The parts demonstrating the dark highlights in the story are the setting, time, and characters. These three components are definitive pieces that speak to the significance of the gloomy, dull events in the story.

The setting of the story is depicted as a dim and scary location. The story happens at the home of the elderly person. In spite of the fact that it happens in the place of the person in question, the storyteller is excessively unclear with the setting. The storyteller doesn't show the person whether the 'house' is a condo or anything specific. The setting was not indicated; be that as it may, one can get the thought it occurred at the place of the elderly person. A puzzling setting, for example, the one in The Tell-Tale Heart, gives a feeling of unpleasantness and leaves the reader frightened simultaneously.

The motivation for murder according to the narrator was “not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye”. However, it is possible that the eye symbolizes a necrosis of the narrator’s spirit. The narrator uses terms such as “infuriate”, “hideous”, “vulture” and “dammed” when describing the eye. These words are often used to describe the demonization of individuals who commit irrational crimes against humanity, such as the crime our narrator is confessing to, the murder and dismemberment of an innocent old man in his sleep.

The storyteller's imbalanced personality beguiles him into accepting his faculties are increased. It is clear he is both neurotic and fixated which eventually launches the storyteller into fierce activity. The Tell-Tale Heart is an old, gothic tale, and is shown to be a frightening story because of its particular elements. The elements indicating the gothic features in the story are the setting, time, and characters. These three elements are the ultimate devices that represent the significance of the gothic, dark features in the story.

References

1. Poe, E. A. (1843). The tell-tale heart. The Pioneer: A Literary and Critical Magazine, 2(1), 29-32.
2. Silverman, K. (1991). Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. Harper Collins Publishers.
3. Kennedy, J. G. (1972). A historical guide to Edgar Allan Poe. Oxford University Press.
4. Quinn, A. H. (1998). Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. JHU Press.
5. Whalen, T. J. (1983). The haunted mind of Edgar Allan Poe. Charles Scribner's Sons.