Cognitive Psychology: Premor In The Terror Of The Old Man

I. Introduction

A. Attention Grabbing Title: Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because of its reliance on its memory for vivid anecdotes rather than systematic statistics (Steven Pinker) (1).

B. Thesis: Thus through chilling plot after plot, Poe has given us a classic example of how the human mind can deceive itself into thinking its cause is just (1).

C. Transition: Additionally, the narrator says he can prove his sanity by how calmly he can narrate the story of how he came to murder the old man (1).

II. Body

A. Supporting Passage #1: It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. He loves the old man,

Supporting Passage #4: He finds humor in the terror of the old man. Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief --oh, no! --it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart (paragraph 6). And the pounding sound of the Old’s man heart drove him over the edge of all reasons. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me --the sound would be heard by a neighbor! The old man 's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead (Paragraph 10). The narrator has gladly taken the life of another and has reached that point, that point that sets a man apart from all other men

Explanation of Passage: In this passage the narrator kills the old man, dismembered his body and bury him beneath the floorboard but, in a fascinating twist the narrator began to hear the heartbeat of the old man ringing in his ear. In the end he admitted his deeds to the police.

2. How It Supports Your Thesis: this supports the thesis in that it proves how the narrator has lost sense with reality and could no longer separate right from wrong.

III. Conclusion

A. Summarize Your Main Arguments: The narrator has concocted a tale of obsession over the eye of the old man, therefore killing the old man to raid himself off the eye becomes justify. But in an intriguing twist, his mind and acute sense of hearing conspire against him leading him to admit his deed and in so doing his insanity. Proving his sanity meant a lot to the narrator in The Tell Tale Heart, but in the end he became the victim of his own insanity (4).

B. Closing: ”Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence- Whether much that is glorious, whether much all that is profound does not spring from disease of thought from moods of mind exalted at the expanse of the general intellect “ (Edgar Allan Poe)