An Analysis of the Literary Devices in The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe’s short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” are two of the greatest thriller and horror short stories ever written. In both stories the narrator is a killer, victims killed for apparently trivial reasons, calculating and retelling of their crime. The narrator, Montres or, in the cask of Amontillado resolves to murder his “friend” to avenge himself for all the years of insult he endured. Therefore he lures his friend into his family catacombs with wine and buries him alive. Like Montresor the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, resolves to murder his roommate, an old men, to rid himself of the old man’s unbearable “vulture eye” as it cause. However the narrator watches the old man in his bedroom for seven nights before murdering him. After the crime is committed, his guilt leads him to confess to police and reveal the body he buried underneath the flour board.

Though the stories are that of horror, beneath the surface there is an underlying meaning or theme that reaches the reader. Poe uses irony, symbolism, and point of view throughout the stories to effectively convey the themes of internal sanity, obsession with vengeance, and the common theme of guilt. Irony plays a significant part in both stories as Poe uses it to increase tension and communicate the theme. There are two types of irony, verbal and dramatic irony. Dramatic irony allows the reader to be “aware of a reality that differs from the reality the characters perceive”(Charters 1056). Verbal Irony however is the “reader’s awareness of a discrepancy between the real meaning of the situation being presented and the literal meaning of the author’s words in presenting it” (Charters, 1114). Poe’s incorporates both types of irony in the short stories.

In “Tell-Tale Heart” verbal irony can be seen within the first few paragraphs of the story. “True! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?….I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story”(Poe 705).

The narrator here is trying very hard to convince the reader of his sanity, however his words and the calm and lurid way in which he tells the story are not fully convincing and in turn shows his insanity. Further into the story he continues to insist that he is sane, “you fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing….you should have seen how wisely I proceeded” (Poe 705). Again the reader has a beleaguering felling that the opposite is true of what the narrator is saying. Although he is telling the story with good composure hit is still the retelling of contemplated murder against an innocent person. Overall the whole story is a dramatic irony as the events unfold and the narrator continues to claim his sanity while his action proves otherwise, such how he watches the man for “for seven long nights, every night just at midnight” (Poe 705). In addition the heartbeat that the narrator hears is an irony within itself, as he is not hearing the old man’s heartbeat but it is his own pulsating heart for his “head ached” and he fancied a ringing in my [his] ears….the ringing became more distinct –until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears” (Poe 708).

Another irony present at the end of the story is that, after taking precautions “for the concealment of the body” so cleverly, so cunningly covered up his tracks He ends up telling the story to the police. “The Cask of Amontillado” also expresses both dramatic and verbal irony reminding us of the true intentions of the narrator who vowed revenge. First instance of irony occurs when the names of the characters are introduced. Fortunato’s name is an irony, as his name means fortunate or lucky one. Montressor ironically greets fortunato, My dear Fortunato how luckily your are met”(Poe 700) and “underscores how unlucky Fortunato is” (Reynolds 106).

Dramatic irony is apparent when the reader knows that a dreaded fate awaits Fortunato as he follows Montressor into the catacombs in search of the amontillado. Montresor expressing concern for Fortunato’s health exemplifies verbal irony. He even tries to persuade Fortunato to turn back because the dampness of the catacombs might worsen his cough. Fortunato assures this by saying, “I will not die of a cough” in which Montresor says, “True–true”(701). Verbal irony is also evident when Montresor wishes Fortunato long life in a toast. Then he says that he is a mason, but not the same way Fortunato defines it.

The irony mentioned above for “Tell-Tale Heart” heightens the feeling of hysteria or insanity and guilt. The irony of the narrator questioning the reader to see if he is thought of as mad (when indeed he is) shows that he is trying to escape his own repressed emotion of internal insanity. He is trying to justify his action or the crime to pacify himself, and his guilt. The heart beat he hears actually being his own was the narrators repressed guilt from murdering the old man and him no longer able to bear the guilt that repression emerged as the heartbeat. At some moment in time the guilt will bear so much weight on one’s heart as in the case of this narrator, that there is no choice but to confess. In “The Cask of Amontillado” the verbal and dramatic irony shows the darkness of the story and in turn the theme of the obsession of vengeance. Throughout the story the use of irony draws the reader’s attention of how the obsession with vengeance leads to one insanity, hatred and ability to commit murder or inhumane acts.

Point of view is a vital component of Poe’s short stories. According to Ann Charters, point of view is the perspective the author chooses to let the reader “view the action of a narrative” (1112). In both the “Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” Poe uses the first person narrative in which the main character tells the story based on what they observe and take part in.

“The Tell-Tale Heart” is written from the point of view or perspective of the murdered of the old man to enhance the dramatic overall impact of the story. This allows the reader to view the feelings and emotions of the murderer as he describes his act of murder, through the story’s visual and aural dimensions.

A few examples from the story are the narrator describing the night of the mighty, “I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder, every instant. The old man’s terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! -do you mark me well? I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me — the sound would be heard by a neighbor!”(707)

Since we observe the crime carried out from the narrator’s perspective, the reader’s imagination is concentrated upon the same visual elements with which the narrator is obsessed. Most prominently the old man’s cataract-covered vulture’s eye. Indeed, the narrator asserts that he delays the commission of his crime for a week because he cannot carry out murder when vulture eye is closed. By using this point of view, then, Poe “makes” the reader see as the narrator sees. If this perspective was not used the sense of guilt the narrator was feeling what not been effectively communicated if the story was told from a third person point of view. The narrator hesitation and hearing of the heartbeat shows that the human heart cannot endure the burden of guilt.”The Tell-Tale Heart” would amount to a report of an irrational crime and would be deprived of much of its potency if told from a point of view other than first person narration.