Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 4

Literature - Essay Example The five natures or characteristics found in literature are subdivided into smaller segments to show the complex variety and types of works which have been produced by writers but the central points remain the same. These include: Knowing and understand these aspects allows an individual to apply the same to any work which is presented as literature and permits the examination of how that particular piece is constructed (Culler, 2000). Considering the longer of the two works, the Tell-Tale Heart is a fine example of gothic short story writing for which Poe is rightly famous. The story places an unnamed narrator with an old man who has a defect in one of his eyes which give it a cloudy appearance. The narrator is very distressed by the eye for some reason to the extent that he wishes to kill the old man. He stands night after night looking upon the old man as he sleeps but doesn’t kill him because the urge to kill settles down while the eye is closed. One night the old man wakes up and upon seeing the cloudy eye the narrator loses control and kills the old man. He chops up the body and buries it under the floor boards (Poe, 1843). When the police come to investigate, he remains calm and shows them around the house to clarify that there was no murder or accident. However, during the visit he starts hearing the heartbeat of the man he buried and becomes very agitated as it grows louder. The police do not hear anything but narrator himself is driven into frenzy and starts tearing out the floorboards to reveal the dead man’s body and his own guilt (Poe, 1843). If we apply the five characteristics, then all seem to fit very well into place with the story in question. First of all, the story and the events described therein are completely fictional although understandably scary and exciting. The language used is very suitable for