Poe's contribution to the Psychology of the monster

Poe’s Contribution to the Psychology of the Monster

Poe’s contribution to the psychology of the monster is ego, he give his monster’s huge egos. His monster are not frightening looking things that come for you in the dark they are people who are intelligent, thoughtful and full of themselves, which is much scarier. In the end the monsters grandiose vision of themselves would cause them to reveal their true self, MONSTERS. I will concentrate on three stories of Poe’s to illustrate how the ego is Poe’s contribution to the psychology of the monster.

In The Imp of Perverse the monster in the story starts off by saying we as a culture “the phrenologist have failed to make room for a propensity” (The Imp of the Perverse 93). It takes a person with a significant ego to make a statement like this. He is saying here that people who study the human brain have not left room in their studies for the unexplained action of people. In the Tell Tale Heart the monster in this story says he can hear everything “I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.” (The Tell Tale Heart 691) Another grandiose statement from this character was “it is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain” (The Tell Tale Heart 691) these statements show two things one the person is obviously mad and two that he thinks very highly of himself. In the Black Cat the ego of the monster shows up about half way into the story, but nonetheless it is an impressive statement. “I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between disaster and atrocity.” (The Black Cat 697) This statement indicates that the monster’s ego has him believing that he has no time to figure out why there was a fire. He is m...

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...had committed, so much so that he states “it is inconceivable how rich a sentiment of satisfaction arose in my bosom as I reflected upon my absolute security.” (The Imp of the Perverse 97) From here the monster enter into a psychological tailspin and ends up telling on himself. But it was his ego that filled him with so much pride that eventually lead to his demise. The last example comes from the Tell Tale Heart where the monster invites the police into the room to look around. This shows extreme confidence but he eventually reveal where the body is. His ego invited the policemen in and in the end it allowed him to be caught.

In each story the monsters ego gives them the confidence to commit the murder and the intelligence to conceal it effectively. But it is also their ego which initiates their downfall. Poe’s contribution to the psychology of the monster is Ego.