Narration Style in "The Tell-tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe

Both The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher are great examples of how Edgar Allan Poe, an American writer born in 1809, uses the first person narration style of writing. When reading both short stories, it is very clear that the male narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s first novel The Tell-Tale Heart is much more coherent and relatable than the narrator in The Fall of the House of Usher. When reading both of the given texts, it is clear to me that when reading The Fall of the House of Usher that the narrator is more part of the background than focussed on like the narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart.

The Tell-Tale Heart, compared to The Fall of the House of Usher is more gratifying to read, as it is far easier to understand without having to look up almost every second word like you have to do in The Fall of the House of Usher. An example of this in The Fall of the House of Usher is on pg. 3 when it says “ I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible.” In the first couple of pages, The Fall of the House of Usher is disorienting, and abstruse.

In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator is present and is somewhat the main focus, while in The Fall of the House of Usher, the narrator is generally absent, while another separate character is the main point of focus, making The Fall of the house of Usher very confusing to read. On page. 9 , the following “His action was alternately vivacious and sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision (when the animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of energetic concision—that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and hollow-sounding enunciation—that leaden, self-balanced and perfectly modulated guttural utterance, which may be observed in the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium, during the periods of his most intense excitement.” is talking about another character ( Roderick Usher ), while The Tell-Tale Heart is talking about himself, ultimately making a more relatable narrator.

In conclusion, The Tell-Tale Heart is the preferred choice, in terms of a better understanding and comprehension than that over The Fall of the House of Usher, both written by Edgar Allan Poe.