...The Untold Insanity People tend to deny the unwanted truth, especially the ill. In the short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, by Edgar Allan Poe, the protagonist, is faced with his biggest problem yet, himself. Within the story, he is faced with guilt, perhaps too much guilt for one to handle. The unknown narrator is seen as an insane individual through his constant paranoia, neurotic thoughts, and unstable actions. The mad man is clearly able to demonstrate his insanity with his constant paranoia towards the old man. Throughout the text, the narrator expresses his ongoing feelings of paranoia towards the evil eye. He believes the eye haunts his every waking hour, till he finally decides to rid himself from the eye once and for all, “I was never...
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...telling a tale of the madness within one’s mind, written for entertainment. Fifty-six years later, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, discussing mental deterioration, was published. Both stories use different symbolism and themes to create a climatic tale. “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman compare in a way that both characters suffer from a mental illness and the authors show this using repetition and suspense to make the reader curious throughout the story. However, they differentiate because in “The Tell Tale Heart”, the narrator from the beginning is clearly insane whereas in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator makes it less obvious and takes longer to reveal her true mental illness,. Both stories discuss madness but both narrators use different language and metaphors to show that. Although there are many similarities between the stories, one that really stand out it the fact that the main characters in both stories are mentally ill. In the “Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is isolated from the outside world because of her husband. We see her madness through her eyes. This is an example of a story told by showing, rather than telling. One has to assume that there really isn’t a woman trapped in the wall, it’s all in narrator’s mind because she’s not living in reality. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the situation is very similar. The narrator is a madman and a murderer who fails to disguise his insanity. In this...
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...Tell-Tale Heart “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?” Upon reading the very first paragraph of the Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, many, if not all, readers can imply that there is something peculiar about the narrator. If some readers were not convinced enough to believe that he is insane from this paragraph, the rest of the story certainly will prove his insanity. Throughout the tale, the narrator desperately tries to defend himself and prove that he is sane by telling...
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...misery, a sense of darkness, and a sense of pleasure from the relief of murder is shown in the beginning when Poe writes “The Tell-Tale Heart.” His work had been known for “nightmarish scenes, desolate wastes, and tragic passions” (Bloom 11).With this being said, Poe is representing those gothic qualities. In the statement, “it haunted me day and night” represents misery the man felt when he saw the old man’s eye (“The Tell-Tale Heart” 71). Another quality of his gothic style is distressed,“I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He has the eye of a vulture - pale blue eye, with a film over it” (“The Tell-Tale Heart” 71). Although the other eye of the old man was fine, he felt agony because of how one eye had “a film over it” (“The Tell-Tale Heart” 71). Another statement that is showing Poe’s sense of darkness in his work is, “When it fell upon me, my blood ran cold . . .” it represents the darkness the man felt when he came in contact with the eye in person and how he watched the old man in his sleep (“The Tell-Tale Heart” 71). He would see it everywhere he went and especially, when he would creep into the old man’s house. A sense of pleasure is what he felt when the thought of what a relief it would be when he murdered...
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... also be harmful. Fear can lead to paranoia, obsession, and never a really full, happy life. Poe uses symbolism, irony, and imagery to depict how fear distorts the narrators’ minds and the result in which happens due to it. Symbolism, an essential part in the “Tell-Tale heart” and the “Masque of Red Death” shows us the events that will soon unfold. For example, this key quote from the “Masque of Red Death” symbolizes the remaining time before death takes them. “At each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to...
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...Edgar Allan Poe was an American Poet and short story writer who is best known for his dark and gothic writing style. Despite his stories have a mysteriously dark tone and often involving violence and death, Poe was able to write stories which keep the reader’s attention from start to finish. Great examples of this can been seen in two of his short stories: “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. At first glance they seem to have very little in common however, after reading and looking more closely, you will notice that they share some striking similarities. In this paper I will illustrate how Poe’s stories “The Tell-Tale Heat” and “The Black Cat” share striking similarities in both meaning, content and ultimately justice. As stated above, both stories share elements of murder and insanity. Both stories are also told by first person narrators who are in prison after being caught for the murders they committed. In “The Black Cat” when the narrator kills his wife and conceals her body in the wall. Similarly, in “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator kills the old man and conceals his body under the floor boards. The question is, what was Poe’s preoccupation with hiding bodies within the structure of a house? Was Poe a former carpenter/brick layer, thus making him imagine concealing the bodies in this manner? Did Poe have delusions of his own about someone hiding a body within the home? Was he himself guilty of a heinous crime and used his writing as an admission of guilt? Another...
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...Alejandro Almonte Percy Haynes English 201 September 27, 2014 “A Question of Motive in The Tell Tale Heart” Why did the man in The Tell Tale Heart kill the old man? That is the question that Poe asks you to ponder in his story yet he gives us scant clues as to the answer. The motive eludes us even as the murderer is guilted into confessing by his own mind and then goes on to thoroughly detail his gruesome deed. The murderer will be referred to as “he” although his sex is never revealed, he refers to himself as a “madman” within this first person narrative (Shen, 287). This piece is tightly written, short to read and it builds at a frantic and hurried pace and then climaxes abruptly. This leaves the reader craving more details and to wishing confirm the man’s motives. Poe’s story consists of the author’s unique ability to create grotesque inventiveness and superb plot construction (Shen, 275). Some interpret the old man as the father of the murderer and his act a release of built up tension and resentment toward him (DeBord, 1). There appears to be no familial bond in the heart of the man when describing the old man, he also lacks the rage that one would expect if the act were resentment fueled murder. Instead the old man seems to be a fond acquaintance of our murderer, because they reside within the same home it can be hypothesized that one or the other is simply a boarder in the other’s home. There is no malice, no greed and no disdain to motivate him, he even...
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...narrator in “The Tell Tale Heart” has felt all of these feelings. The narrator in “The Tell Tale Heart” is psychotic. He shows us his insecurity because he wants to kill the old man just because of his malformed eye. He thinks it is alright to kill the old man and because he believes he is right, he thinks killing the old man is a stable and rational thing to do. In the end, his mental illnesses drive him to his confession of this awful act. In the "Tell-Tale Heart", Edgar Allan Poe uses irony, imagery, and symbolism to describe how psychotic, frighteningly, and twisted mind this narrator really is. First, irony the narrator confesses how sane he is; he is exhibiting his insanity as he describes his actions and motives for the murder (Edgar, Poe). Secondly, irony in the story is that the narrator/murderer refers to how he loves the old man and quote, “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I kill him’’(Poe). Its irony that he loves the guy but he systematically plans to kill him. Lastly, an irony of this short story is that shortly after the narrator kills the old man and hides his heart underneath the Adams 2 floorboard, the police arrive, while talking to them he begins to hear beating, and he eventually breaks and confess to killing the man (Poe). The killer believes that he hear the old man heart beat underneath...
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...It is without a doubt that hearing voices preludes impending insanity. In the “Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator heard voices of some kind which is a sign of potential madness. He says, “I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth.” ( Poe 1 ) To hear things from a dimension and supposedly the inside of the earth is beyond absurd, therefore, the narrator is on the path to insanity. In “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson, she also picks up on non-existent voices during her descent into insanity. She supposedly heard, “A service like a drum kept beating, beating, till I thought my mind was going numb.” ( Dickinson 6-8 ) Her senses began to deteriorate as the drum kept beating continuously, a sign of her impending insanity. Dickinson and Poe heard voices and sounds while in reality, these things were imaginary and only showcase how far gone they’ve become....
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...Poe’s suspenseful short story, Tell-Tale Heart, effectively portrays the killer through the use of literary tools and themes such as mortality, imagery, and point of view. The main character wants to show he is not insane, and even offers a story as proof. The narrator’s decision to kill the old man so that the eye would stop looking at him marked the initial situation. The motives of the killer aren’t understood, which makes the murder mystery difficult to understand. Was the narrator insane? Did he kill the old man in self-defense? As such, the fear of death is expressed in the text. For example, “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” This excerpt illustrates the narrator’s thoughts of mortality. “Yes, he was stone, stone dead”, depicts how the narrator continued to express the old man’s death in a conspicuous/ distinct manner. Edgar Allen Poe can build so much fixated context over the old mans “vulture eye”, amplifying the use of imagery in the text. “You fancy me mad...You should have seen how wisely I proceeded.” This is ironic because the man tells himself he is normal that he is killing a man because of his eye. Another example is, “a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” The symbol in this quote was the film over the eye, how the man couldn't see as well what was going on right under his nose. Poe creates confusion using his pandemonium literature to render the imagery of the story. Whether or not the old man...
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...The mental state of Poe affects his writing, and it appears in all of his literary work. The first is lost loves, the second is alcoholism. Edgar A. Poe has many lost loves in his life. He lost his mother at almost age three, his foster mother while he was in his teens, his friend's mother, whom he loved like his own mother. Poe also has a problem with alcoholism, he is allergic to alcohol and knows that if he drinks, he will become very sick, and sometimes even put himself in a coma state. The fear of being in a coma springs from the fear of being buried a live; some people at the time are buried a live because they are in comas, but everyone think they are already dead. Both the title and the plot of his 1844 story"The Premature Burial" illustrate this fear of his, alcohol destroys his life and his mind but eventhough he continues to drink. Although these direct ties can alone prove that Poe's life is reflected in his works, more evidence is provided about his life in his stories. He thoroughly incorporates psychology into many of his stories, which he knows a great deal of. He uses personal fears in his stories, along with characteristics of his surroundings. Even though there are many a correlation more than are stated here, the connections provide here suggest that Poe's writing are an outlet and an extension for his life. Poe's mother died of consumption when he was three and Bonaparte's mother died of a pulmonary embolism when she was only two months old. This similarity...
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...Cornelius Hughes Dr. Montgomery LibA 102 October 13, 2009 Poe’s Use of Irony in His Short Stories Gargano says that “Poe intends his readers to keep their powers of analysis and judgment ever alert;…” (178). Poe is not your average type of literary figure. He often uses personification, metaphors, and symbols in order to give hints at details that would otherwise be unknown. These type of tactics help to keep the readers on their toes, otherwise they would be subject to misinterpreting what they read. In particular, Poe was a profound user of irony in his short stories. Poe used irony to depict the errors in his characters’ ways of thinking and their actions. Stories such as “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and “The Masque of the Red Death” are all short stories that convey this notion. It is my intention to, based on the evidence found and presented, to prove this point. Let us first look at how Poe’s use of irony proves this point in “The Cask of Amontillado.” . The setting of the events is an “evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season” (Poe, “Cask” 426). This setting alone is symbolic for in this time during a carnival, people dressed themselves in costumes, becoming for a short time something other than their normal selves. Both Fortunato and Montresor are outfitted. Fortunato is wearing “a tight-fitted parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells” (426). In short, his attire was much...
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...Wilson1 Instructor Jester ENGL 1102 June 17, 2013 “The Tell-Tale Heart” Have you ever been paranoid before, or have you ever met someone who was totally crazed with paranoia? Well, we all have encountered someone with a case of paranoia, but not too many instances where it led to murder. In the story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, was devastating to say the least Poe is basically carrying out what was in his heart at the time. He is so paranoid about the old man’s eyes. He sees the eyes as “that of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold” (Poe 229). Who thinks like this? The old man didn’t do anything to him but look at him. He actually was stalking this man in his own house. What sane person breaks in one’s house and watch over them while they sleep? Poe was obsessed with this old man, until it haunted him for about a week. I know from experience one can get so paranoid until being around certain types of people will make you feel uncomfortable. I can admit I use to be paranoid about people, with physical disabilities. I was so afraid of them because I didn’t understand the condition. Once I understood the different conditions then I became less fearful. I felt really bad for the old man because in a sense he was paranoid. The old man often heard sounds in his house but thought it was just maybe his own Wilson2 There were times when he thought...
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...The Tell-Tale Heart In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator who later proves himself morbidly insane by committing a gruesome murder spends his entire story trying to convince an unknown audience that he is not mad. The unreliableness of this narrator shows up in the very beginning of his story. He begins speaking to an audience that is unknown. This is revealed in his first words, "True!---nervous---very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" In this first sentence alone the narrator discredits his reliability several times. First, it is unknown to who he is telling his story. The reader can only guess. It is unknown if he is speaking to a psychiatrist, a prison warden, or himself. The fact that his audience is unknown makes the narrator in this story unreliable. Secondly, he states his nervousness. It shows here that he is unstable and cannot be trusted. Finally, the best example of the narrator's unreliability is in his continuous attempts from his first words, and to the end of his story to convince that he is not a madman. It is seen over and over in the following statements, "Now this is the point. You fancy me as mad. Madmen know nothing. But, you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded---with what caution---with what foresight---with what dissimulation I went to work!" and, "And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?" His overbearing...
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...Olsen WR100 Insanity in Literature 11 February 2015 “The Presence of a Motive in ‘The Cask of Amontillado’” In many countries, the highest offense one can commit is insulting the family of another, as family is a strong source of history and pride. Conflicts between families have fueled many a feud or violent campaign, and insult is never left to injury; action must be taken. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado,” the narrator, Montresor, does not appear explicitly insane, as many would argue, but rather to be acting on a motive against his victim, Fortunato. This premeditated intent to take revenge can be seen in Fortunato’s consistent disrespect for Montresor’s family, Montresor’s lack of guilt, which is exhibited during the act and also in the final phrase of the story, and finally through Poe’s method of singular effect. Montresor’s extreme distaste for Fortunato is immediately evident. He opens his murderous, half a century year old tale by stating, “The...
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