Edgar Allan Poe is widely considered one of the greatest American poets, his writing style unique and unlike any other. One of his most widely-acclaimed pieces is the daunting The Tell-Tale Heart, an eerie tale of a madman overcome by his guilt at murdering the old man which he served.

Poe’s unique style enhances this already unsettling plot in many ways— his word choice and overall writing mechanics increases the depth this piece contains (a testament to his own mental issues), while he also heightens the tension with descriptors, enticing our overactive imaginations to empathize our senses and infiltrate our minds.

Poe was contemporary with the Romantic movement that began sweeping across the United States in the nineteenth century, and thus his work reflects that era. His word choice would be considered of a higher diction than some of the work of his predecessors, and that reflects in his own work. His work, somewhat of a poetic prose, a common style of the time, but with much darker twists of subject matters than what was normally accustomed to, can only be described as contemporary horror. The Tell-Tale Heart clearly represents this, as the word choice Poe uses would be seemingly out of place in any other work. His use of phrases such as “mortal terror”, “perfect distinctiveness”, and “violent gesticulations” are examples of his characteristic style. Although one could say, drastic adjectives are necessary to escalate anything in a horror piece, it is not as simple as that. The pure connotation of “mortal terror”- a fear so great it could be equated to death- perfectly encapsulates the mood of this piece. This piece is built on increasing tension and creeping paranoia instead of all out horror, but this “mortal terror” is at the singular moment where the story gives a description from the perspective of someone other than the narrator— “Presently, I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief -- oh, no! It was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him although I chuckled at heart.” (Poe ¶7)

In a grammatical sense, The Tell-Tale Heart has unique choice in structure. The piece is filled with dashes for dramatic pauses, further increasing the already palpable tension. There is also a sporadic use of capitalization, representing the random bursts of energy from the narrator’s oncoming madness. “No doubt I now grew VERY pale; but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased -- and what could I do? It was A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND -- MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON.” (Poe ¶17) This specific statement comes as a realization that the sound the narrator was hearing was exactly the same as the old man’s heart before he murdered him.

Poe had his own mental issues that explain the darkness of his work; his parents died when he was a child and he was abandoned, adopted by a somewhat abusive couple. This evidence supports the dark themes that Poe so expertly intertwines into his works.

Overall, Poe appeals to our senses throughout the piece, building a palpable tension. He encourages our vivid imaginations with his description of the old man’s eye, which haunts his very dreams. “It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture -- a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.” (Poe ¶2) His depiction of the “vulture eye” is truly a frightful picture. He accurately equates the horror the narrator felt, enough horror to devolve him into a raving madman.

The Tell-Tale Heart’s pièce-de-résistance is the almost audible thumping that the story illustrates the slowly crawling madness, the reigning theme of the piece. The way that Poe emphasizes it, makes it all the more unnerving. “I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men, but the noise steadily increased. O God! what COULD I do? I foamed -- I raved -- I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder -- louder -- louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly , and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! -- no, no? They heard! -- they suspected! -- they KNEW! -- they were making a mockery of my horror! -- this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! -- and now -- again -- hark! louder! louder! louder! LOUDER!--“ (Poe ¶17)

The Tell-Tale Heart has clearly entrenched itself as the golden standard of the horror genre. Edgar Allan Poe masterfully weaves suspense and tension in this piece that dissects the creeping effects of guilt and paranoia as they escalate into madness. Poe’s use of diction and his choice of technical grammar heighten the suspense, and he truly terrified us with his use of imagery. I personally love this piece and all its intricacies, as I model my own writing style after his. Terror is hard to capture on a piece of paper with ink on it, but Edgar Allan Poe has it down to a science