Picture
Quote:
"True!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed-not dull them.Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Harken!  and observe healthily--how calmly I can tell you the whole story." (Page 138)

Analysis:
This utterly demented quote was derived from one of Poe’s remarkable stories The Tell-Tale Heart. This quote clearly
reflects the extensive emotions emitted from Poe. Poe uses many literary devices in his stories, but one in particular stood out to me; repetition. Poe often mentions in the beginning of his stories the idea of being mad, as he did in
this particular story. Poe adds an eerie touch to this quote by fixating the reader’s attention to the chance that the narrator may be completely delirious, thus giving the narrator a perfect character sketch. Not only did this quote reveal
 the narrator as a delirious character but it also introduced the story, which I found to be quite clever. Just from reading this quote one can easily understand the atmosphere of the story. The story seems dark, and creepy; I could almost immediately tell that the narrator had done something beyond repair. I also found that it was ironic that was nervous in the beginning of the quote, about something horrendous, but near the end, he was ready to explain
the story calmly, as if he was confident. After reading this quote I found that the suspense had left me deprived and I yearned to read farther into the story. Edgar Allan Poe certainly will quench the thirst of a hungry reader with his
outstanding bizarre nature of writing.





Leave a Reply.