Edgar Allen Poe 's Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, And The Tell Tale Heart

‘Gothic Horror’ is a style of literature that is defined by elements of fear, horror, death and gloom, not to mention romantic elements like nature, individuality and very high emotion. It can also include supernatural themes. This style usually appeals more to an older audience, rather than children. It can appeal more to this audience because gothic horror can be used to explore serious themes and ideas, and older audiences can fully appreciate that. An older audience is also more likely to enjoy the feeling of fear gothic horror usually gives.

“The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is an erratic Gothic story told from the point of view of a narrator who speaks directly and passionately to the audience, engaging with them and challenging their views though the use of literary techniques. Poe’s personal context, which includes his depressing upbringing and later being shunned by those who closest to him (including his foster father) is reflected heavily in the text. This makes it easier for the audience to relate to the narrator’s character, and to thus experience discovery through the text by connecting with it on a personal level, showing how discoveries can vary according to personal context.

Gothic literature is a style of writing that contains elements of both horror and romance. This genre allows readers to experience a mix of horror and romance intertwined. Within the gothic genre there are elements of supernatural events, beings, and gloomy day settings. This style of writing became popular in the late 18th century and early 19 century. Many give credit to it’s uprising to author Horace Walpole, who wrote The Castle of Otranto (1764). His book contains all the elements that constitute the gothic genre. Frankenstein fits perfectly into the gothic category because the gloomy and mysterious setting is placed where most readers think of it as

“The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allan Poe, is a petrifying short story. Poe incorporated a variety of literary elements to intimidate the reader. Personification, theme, and symbols are combined to create a suspenseful horror story.

Edgar Allan Poe has a dark sense of literary meaning. Within "The Tell-Tale Heart" it 's shown when Poe incorporates dark elements of literacy through the guilt of a murder. Which became forced out by the hypothetical beating of a heart.

“I smiled, for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream.” The Tell Tale Heart is one of Edger Allan Poe’s most famous and creepiest stories. The premise of this gothic short story is that a man’s own insanity gives him away as a murderer. By using the narrators own thoughts as the story Poe displays the mental instability and the unique way of creating a gothic fiction. While other stories written by Poe reflect this same gothic structure and questionable sanity, this story has a unique way of making the reader walk away from the story with an uncomfortable feeling. The mental struggles the narrator faces might as well reflect the depression and other psychological issues Edgar Allan Poe was confronted with in his own life.

“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a story written by Edgar Allan Poe of an unnamed narrator who attempts to convince the audience of his sanity. He believes someone who is “insane” would not be able to plan and execute the detailed murder that he committed. The victim is an old man with a “filmy vulture-eye.” The narrator felt he had no choice but to kill the old man to not look at this horrific eye anymore. It is carefully calculated and the body is dismembered and stashed beneath the floorboards. The narrator’s guilt of what he had done becomes apparent when he begins hallucinating and hears the beating of the old man’s heart beneath the floorboards.

In the short story Tell- Tale Heart Edgar Allan Poe has three primary elements that I will be talking about. Which are :elapsed time,locale, and population.

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is about an unnamed man, whose agenda is to kill an old man because of his “vulture eye” (Poe 331). The narrator has nothing against the old man but is extremely bothered by the way his one eye looks. Throughout the story, the narrator tries to prove to the readers that he is not crazy, which leads me to believe that he subconsciously knows that he is. The narrator spends several nights watching the old man sleep. On the last night, the narrator awakens the old man while he is watching him. Instead of retreating he stays silently and unmoving in the darkness. He is aware that the old man is terrified and that he is trying to down play the noises he has heard. The narrator then convinces himself that he is hearing the beat of the old man’s heart. Out of fear that the sound of the beating heart will awake the neighbors, the narrator kills the man. The narrator then cuts the limbs off the old man, and hides them under the floor boards. At the end of the story, the narrator could easily get away with the murder, however ends up admitting what he has done to the police. He does this only because he believes that he hears the heart of the old man beating. This convinces me that the narrator is insane, even though he tries to convince the readers otherwise. Overall I thought “The Tell Tale Heart” was a compelling and horrific story. It was one of my favorite stories by Poe so far.

Even if one feels they may have 'gotten away ' with a crime, the weight of a person’s conscience cannot be concealed. In someone’s life, too much power and control combined with a person’s conscience in a person’s life can and will lead to an imbalance and perhaps insanity as in the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates how the narrator in this story goes through the greed and need for control, leading to his insanity that results in extreme guilt.

Who came first? The mentally-ill person, or the man who only wrote about them? Edgar Allan Poe truly experienced the bittersweet symphony with being a writer of his caliber; he wrote with such proficiency that he often would become unable to escape the dark world, filled with the aspects of gothic literature, in which he created. He also faced numerous obstacles throughout his lifespan, which seemed to plague him by always returning right after the previous issue have been resolved. From poverty, moving around constantly, and his wife’s sporadic slowly declining health, to never being recognized as the gifted writer he truly was; Poe’s problems never seemed to disappear (Bain and Flora, 368). The pen was his shield. He habitually sought

Mary Shelley creates a sense of gloom, mystery, and suspense, in her novel Frankenstein. The book generates these perceptions though the setting and the terrible events that go on throughout the book. Gothic novels came from the English genre of fiction popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. Gothics are defined by the mysterious and horrific atmosphere, similar to that of Mary Shelley’s writing. Frankenstein is a gothic novel because of the combined elements of extreme and sinister landscapes, horrifying events, supernatural elements, and a passionate, wilful villain.

Novel in particular and literature in general is more than just a work of fiction but in fact the hidden reflection of a specific historical era. Although, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights and Dracula were written in different times and each leaves its readers with different emotion and contemplation stages, they all share an affinity: the presence of Gothic elements. Indeed, these novels are designed to lead their reader into thrilling journeys through spooky dark setting, suspense horrifying plot, and claustrophobic atmosphere. These elements, though appear in various forms throughout these three novels, still excellently accomplish their mission of enticing the readers to be caught up in the narrative.

All too often the gothic literature genre is reduced in its interpretation to gloomy weather and archaic haunted houses. These patterns do exist, but they do not define the genre. Gothic literature found its niche in the 18th and 19th centuries, and during the Victorian era it served a more nuanced purpose than simply to scare readers. Many gothic authors used a monster as a vessel to symbolize topics that the Victorian era sensibilities would label as “monstrous.” They are the incarnation of the taboo subjects society is trying to repress. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Tell-Tale Heart”, the authors use Freudian symbolism along with literary symbolism to demonstrate the repercussions of repressing “id” desires.

Gothic Literature is a style of literature popularized during the late 18th century and the early 19th century with the publication of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. This style usually portrays fantastic tales dealing with the horror, despair, the grotesque and other “dark” subjects. Characteristics of gothic literature includes the presence of victims and their victimizers who usually hold immense powers along with their evil purpose. The setting of this kind of literature generally takes place within impenetrable walls, whether physical or mental. This setting creates a sense of hopeless isolation within the victim. The summarization of the characters and situation creates an atmosphere pervaded by a sense of mystery, darkness, oppressiveness, fear, and doom.