Tell-Tale Heart

Point of view:
The Tell-Tale Heart was written through the eyes of a first person narrator.

Style:

Imagery:
"His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness, (for the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers,) and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily. "
This is an imagery that helps the reader understand that the room was not only dark, but pitch black.

Metaphor:
"He had the eye of a vulture."
This metaphor describes to us that his eyes ressemble those of a vulture

Simile:
"So I opened it --you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily --until, at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye."

Personnification:
"All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim."
This is a personnification of death, it gives Death the form of a human being who is projecting a shadow.

Irony:
Although the narrator says that he loved the old man and that the old man had never wronged him, he still decides to kill him.


Vocabulary:
1. hearken: to give heed or attention to what is said; listen
2. healthily: pertaining to or characteristic of good health, or a sound and vigorous mind
3. foresight: care or provision for the future
4. dissimulation: the act of dissimulating; feigning; hypocrisy
5. latch: a device for holding a door, gate, or the like, closed, consisting basically of a bar falling or sliding into a catch, groove, hole, etc.
6. cunningly: skill employed in a shrewd or sly manner, as in deceiving; craftiness; guile
7. fastening: something that fastens, as a lock or clasp
8. groan: a low, mournful sound uttered in pain or grief
9. merely: only as specified and nothing more; simply: merely a matter of form.
10. crevice: a crack forming an opening; cleft; rift; fissure