The short story starts in medias res, which means that the story starts in the midst of action. All of the paragraphs are separated by a blank space. This short story consists of 17 paragraphs, some are just one or two sentences, others are much longer. The only reason the narrator decided to kill the old man, making the story happen, is because in his mind the eye of the old man made his blood run cold. The story doesn’t just include certain matters or the mind, but the entire story revolves around them.
All these things are matters of the mind. Other things that come across are guilt, paranoia, humour and fear. Firstly, the narrator talks about how others think he is mad. The story is very much about matters of the mind. The main theme of this short story is ‘psyche’. The place of this short story is of no importance to the situation of the writer.
The story could have taken place somewhere else, but only in another building which has wooden floors, deathwatch beetles in the walls and shutters on the windows. The place is of importance to the story because it is one specific place where the entire story takes place. He shows them the room of the old man, not his house. Furthermore, when the police come to the house, the narrator opens the door and shows them “his chamber”. Opening that door is also the only thing the narrator had to do to look at the old man, he didn’t have to break into the front door first. This can be seen in the short story by multiple facts: the narrator when opening the door of the old man is instantly looking at his bed, meaning that it could be the bedroom of the old man in the house. This short story takes place in the house in which both the narrator and the old man live. The lantern also wouldn’t have made sense, because when it is day, you do not need a lantern to see. The old man wouldn’t have been sleeping and the narrator wouldn’t have been able to stay in his room looking at him when he was awake. Secondly, a lot of aspects would not make sense if the story had taken place during the day. Firstly because it would have taken away the fact that the dark mood of the short story is clear without it being made feel that way in text. This short story couldn’t have taken place during the day.
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