Murder in Two Stories by Poe
By Matthew Cox

Many stories in literature do not end the way readers expect them to. This was known as irony (Holman and Harmon, p. 484). There have been many kinds of irony. For example, sarcasm has been verbal irony. The speaker said the opposite of what they meant. In structural irony, a naive main character did not know what was going on. However, the reader knew the fate he would suffer. Dramatic irony was similar because readers knew more about the outcome than the protagonist. This was called tragic irony in tragedies. In cosmic irony, a "cruel" fate duped the main character with circumstances beyond their control. Edgar Allen Poe used irony in his stories for dramatic effect.

Stream-of-conscious stories showed the emotional and mental responses of an individual. It has usually been done with first person narratives. Such responses ranging from the most basic emotion to the highest thought could be understood by the reader. Edgar Allan Poe used this method to describe the anguish that characters in his stories felt. He also used irony to enhance the tale’s emotional effect at the end of each story. This allowed readers to see how the main characters responded to their actions. Edgar Allan Poe used stream-of-consciousness and irony to let readers understand the feelings of characters in his stories.

Poe’s classic story of “The Tell-Tale Heart” was a first-person narrative of a man who lived with an older fellow who had a “vulture-like eye.” The story started in media res (in the middle of the action) as the speaker plotted to kill his partner. It continued as a stream-of-consciousness tale as the young man felt overly sensitive when the eye looked at him. Sensations such as these described the narrator’s thoughts and emotions as he committed the killing (Gratham). For example, the story described how the protagonist waited “seven nights” to murder his friend. As the plot unfolded, the main character admitted that he could only kill his roommate when the vulture-eye was open. On the eighth night, the narrator woke the elderly fellow who sat up in bed. A ray of light from the speaker’s lantern shown on his friend’s eye. The narrator smothered with a mattress his roommate while thinking that he heard the man’s heart beat louder and louder. Frantically, the speaker hid the evidence by cutting up the man’s body and hiding it under the floorboards. Such a struggle alerted a neighbor who called the police. Three officers came to the man’s house. The speaker invited them in to investigate. He even allowed them to sit in chairs over the spot where he hid the dismembered body. The story ended ironically. As the police suspect nothing, the main character thought that he heard the old man’s heart beating louder and louder through the floor. All three of the policemen did not hear the sound. However, the speaker believed that they heard it too. In desperation, the narrator confessed to the killing. He even tore up the floorboards to show where the body was. This was an example of dramatic irony. The narrator’s hallucination of the old man’s beating heart let the reader’s see his undoing by admitting to the crime.

Poe’s theme of murder in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” continued in other stories including “The Cask of Amontillado (Baraban).” This story was similar to the latter because it was a stream-of-conscious narrative from the first person perspective. Monstressor, the protagonist, took revenge on another noble, Fortunato, during a carnival. The narrator did not say why he wanted to get even. He led his friend, dressed a jester, down into a wine cellar to get a bottle of rare amontillado. Next, Monstressor took his friend to catacombs under the city where the drink was hidden in a special place. After having several drinks, Fortunato became drunk. His rival chained him inside an alcove and began to seal it up with stones and mortar. Fortunato sobered up and believed that it was a big joke. However, Monstressor seemed to enjoy his work. For example, he stopped a few timed to hear his friend shake the chains or bells on his costume. Unlike the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Monstressor seemed to have a moment of remorse as he put the last stone in. He dismissed it a sickness from the damp. The protagonist admitted to his crime at the very end. However, Monstressor said that he did it fifty years ago. This was an example of structural irony. Such irony used a naive hero or unreliable narrator such as Monstressor to mislead the reader. This allowed writers to surprise readers at the end of the stories.

Edgar Allan Poe used stream-of-consciousness and irony to let readers understand the feelings of characters in his stories. Stream-of-conscious has been a literary effect that writers have used to let readers connect to characters in stories. It has shown Such responses ranging from the most basic emotion to the highest thought could be understood by the reader. Both the feeling and inner thoughts of individuals. This technique has been done often with first person narratives (Holman and Harmon, p. 484). Authors including Edgar Allan Poe used this method to draw readers into story characters. He also used irony at the end of different stories for dramatic effect. This allowed readers to understand how different characters reacted to their own behaviors.


Works Cited

Baraban, Elena. “The Motive for Murder in ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ by Edgar
Allan Poe.” Rocky Mountain Language Association. 9 January 2008 http://rmmla.wsu.edu/ereview/58.2/articles/baraban.asp.

Grantham , Michael. “The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe.” Helium
9 January 2008 http://www.helium.com/tm/523545/often-recognized-
shadowy-elements.

Holman, C. Hughes and Harmon, William. Handbook to Literature, A. 5th ed.
New York: MacMillian, 1986.