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Criticism Of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales

Decent Essays

Edgar Allan Poe’s critique of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice Told Tales states, that any author who hope to be successful will write poetry and short stories in the same style that he, himself uses (Poe). Poe’s continued popularity prove his ability to write an entertaining story, but what gives him the right to control another’s work of art? He was, without a doubt, an arrogant person, and believed his way was the only proper way to write. Many may not agree with his theories on writing, or his need to make others abide by his rules, but there may be something to his beliefs. His stories, like the “The Tell-Tale Heart”, are packed with emotion and flow beautifully do to the use of his style. After a falling out with his foster father, Poe …show more content…

“The Raven” is a short poem; it consists of 108 lines, and takes between ten and fifteen minutes to read. This meets the length requirements that Poe set for poems. When we start to read the poem, one of the first things you notice, is that it rhymes. At the beginning of “The Raven” Poe uses the rhymes to build suspense; you want to know why the raven is there and what it has to say. By the end of the poem, you and the narrator are annoyed by the raven; you are desperate for it to say something other than “Nevermore” (48). The fact that your feelings change with the narrator’s, shows that Poe did “establish a preconceived effect” (Poe). Poe offers more details concerning “preconceived effect” when discussing short stories, but “The Raven” does meet this and all other requirements he found to be essential in …show more content…

Looking at “The Tell-Tale Heart” in our textbook (1186), we can see that it is about three and a half pages long. This meets Poe’s length requirement, because it can be read in one sitting. The story also has a preconceived effect, or unity of effect, throughout. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a dark story that deals with murder and guilt. The narrator kills a man because he doesn’t like his eye, chops him up and hides him under the floorboards. There is nothing to misinterpret in this story; the narrator is a crazy and dangerous man. This leads to the climax, where the narrator starts feeling guilt for killing the old man. He starts to believe he can hear the man’s heart through the floorboards; The heartbeat gets louder and louder until the narrator can no longer take it. When the police arrive, he turns himself in just to get away from the beating. With climax being the final element, Poe has made sure “The Tell-Tale Heart” has everything necessary to be considered a short

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