Steven King, a world-renowned horror author, said: “Monsters are real, so are ghosts. They live in us and sometimes they win. Such darkness is present in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart," both of which are full of the narrators' heinous experiences. In the poem “The Raven,” a Raven that breaks into the narrator’s house unconsciously reminds him of the death of his wife; such a painful memory causes him to be overcome by death wrath and depression. The narrator's irrational state of mind 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 ground. The man's perpetual guilt, however, is forced to confess when he hears an increasingly loud heartbeat through the wooden planks. As a result, Poe applies allusion, symbolism, and diction in “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” to create effective short stories and poems. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original EssayIn “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe foreshadows and clarifies significant actions through allusion, a reference indirect which explains a concept without describing it directly. In "The Raven," the speaker's helplessness over the death of his wife Lenore is defined when he bitterly cries, "Drink, oh drink this sweet nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore." Nepenthe is a medicine described in Homer's Odyssey as an emotional painkiller intended to rid sorrow or internal struggle. The narrator's suggestion of drinking such a drug to rid his painful state of immense agony further suggests his desperation to rid himself of 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 death watches in the wall.” Such acts are discerned in beetles often called “death watches.” The beetles convey anticipated death by striking themselves against various surfaces, similar to what the narrator had done to his miserable prey. The comparison with a mammal capable of predicting death portends the unfortunate and imminent fate of the old man. The allusions used by Poe suggest future events and their importance. Additionally, Poe establishes a 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 “the light of a lamp flowing over him and casting his shadow on the ground; /And my soul from this shadow that floats on the ground /Will be lifted – never again! The Raven's special position above Pallas, the Greek goddess of wisdom, declares her ultimate dominance over 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. Additionally, in “Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe uses symbolism to create a meaningful moral. After the main character murdered the old man, he managed to convince the police of his innocence, but he "felt his face turn pale and wished they would leave." I had a headache and it felt like I was hearing a ringing in my ears: but they remained..