Edger Allen Poe is the master of suspense and horror. He was called "the father of the detective story.
" He was born 1809 in Boston. The Allen family took him and raised him after his mother's death and his father abandoned him when he was 2 years old. He is a great writer and famous about his short stories. At this paper "The Tell Tale Heart" ; will be discussed under the elements of Gothic Fiction.
"The Till Tale Heart", one of his great writing, was written 1840. It discusses a mental state.Concerning "The Black Cat" it was written 1843. The Tell Tale Heart" is one of the greatest examples of the Gothic Fiction. It is talking about a young man who lives with an old one he is responsible of taking care of him. He was afraid of the old man because of his bale blue eye.
He even decides to kill the old man in order to get rid of the scary eye. The young man claims that he do love the old man, but he can't stand the old man's creepy eye. He in addition with the insanity talking claims that he isn't crazy or something by majoring the precautious that he took when he done this horrible thing.He goes every night to the old man room intending to kill the poor old man but he doesn't find a reason to kill him because he was a sleep, closing his eyes.
He only have a problem with the man's eye "every night just at midnight --but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. " But at the eighth night after a whole week of attempts he succeeds doing his terrible job. He hides the body under the floor of the old man's chamber. The police officers come after have been called by one of the neighbors who heard the old man screaming.The young man was confident and he even invites the policemen to the old man's room. The young man hear a frequently voice of old man's heartbeats.
He thinks that the police officer mocks him and they know the truth so, he confesses about his crime. The story is full of suspense scenes and a kind of mystery that ideas of killing the old man because of his eye this come up with a sense of insanity and craziness. Also the high emotion of the young character when the young man was afraid of the eye he even killed the man of that reason.He decided to kill the man He express when he sees the eye he elt cold and terror when he says " Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.
" He also decides the old man because of this reason. Symbolism thorough out the story took a big share. First the Eye represent the inner thoughts so, the reader can tell that the young man has a serious issues because the eye is like a mirror a reflection to people's inner thoughts and feelings. It also represents the id; while he was getting rid of his id he killed the man by cold blood without any concrete reason.Also the lantern linked the feeling of terror and suspense was the dominant atmosphere in the story On the other hand this story lacking so many elements one of whom the supernatural being or monsters.
Poe takes a different bass which is the psychological disorders. The man had an issue with the man eye and that wasn't normal. Moreover heir wasn't any revenge was taken. Also there wasn't any young woman to rescue from danger or something risky. There also wasn't any love affair during the events of the story.
However this story considered as a gothic fiction.
