Steven King by Edgar Allan Poe, a world-famous horror author, said: “Monsters are real, even ghosts are real. They live inside us and, sometimes, they win. Such darkness is present in Edgar Allen Poe's “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” both filled with the narrators' harrowing experiences. In the poem "The Raven", a raven intruding into the narrator's house subconsciously reminds him of his wife's death; such a painful memory makes him overcome by the anger of death and depression. The narrator's irrational mentality is also evident in the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”. A man's madness drives him to kill his elderly neighbor, because of his unusual eye, and hide his body under the floor. The man's perpetual guilt, however, forces him to confess when he hears a steadily increasing heartbeat through the wooden floorboards. As a result, Poe applies allusion, symbolism, and diction in both “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” to create effective short stories and poems. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIn "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe foreshadows and clarifies significant actions through allusion, an indirect reference that explains a concept without directly describing it. In "The Raven", the speaker's helplessness in the face of his wife Lenore's death is defined when he bitterly cries out "Drink, oh drink this gentle nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore." Nepenthe is a drug described in Homer's Odyssey as an emotional pain reliever to release pain or internal struggle. The narrator's suggestion that he drink such a drug to release his painful state of immense agony further suggests his desperation to release misery and death. Similarly, "The Tell-Tale Heart" uses an allusion to a beetle's method of predicting death. As the old man sits trembling on his bed, the narrator stands by the door “listening; – just as I did night after night, listening to the vigils of death on the wall.” Such acts are identified in scarab beetles often called “death watches.” The beetles convey anticipated death by striking various surfaces, similar to what the narrator had done for his miserable prey. The comparison with a mammal capable of predicting death foreshadows the unfortunate and imminent fate of the old man. The allusions Poe uses suggest future events and their importance. Additionally, Poe establishes greater meaning behind "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" through his use of symbolism, which are concepts hidden through people, objects, or various scenarios. In “The Raven,” the Raven, perched on the bust of Pallas, has “a lamp that flows above him and casts his shadow upon the floor; /And my soul from that shadow that lies floating on the floor /Will not be lifted, never again!”. The particular position of the Raven above Pallas, the Greek goddess of wisdom, declares its absolute dominion over the intelligence. With wisdom bridled by unreasonable grief, the Raven's towering shadow suggests that the narrator's soul is perpetually conquered by the sad existence of depression and death. Furthermore, in “Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe uses symbolism to create a meaningful moral . After the main character murders the old man, he successfully convinces the police of his innocence, but “he felt pale and wished they would go away. My head hurt and my ears felt like they were ringing: yet they still sat and chatted.” The narrator's gradual worrying state of mind symbolizes his subconscious guilt after the murder..