Tell Tale Heart Narrator's Madness

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TellTale Essay “There is no genius without some touch of madness.” And that is exactly what describes the suspenseful short story of The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. Four key points happened throughout the story, a madman had planned to murder his beloved old man over something so simple, an eye. He then decides to stalk the old man, yet at the same time saying he’s not mad, and ventures out to even kill the old man, and confessing to the police in the end. Despite his claims to the contrary, the Narrator is definitely insane due to his bizarre motive for murder and the fact that he stalks the Old Man to begin with. First of all, the narrator demonstrates how mad he is by stalking the old man due to him revealing how every night …show more content…

As quoted here, “I gasped for breath… I talked more quickly-more vehemently… I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations… I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men… I foamed- I raved- I swore! I swung the chair upon chair I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards.” (19) Some words that are questionable in which he used were, “talked more quickly/vehemently”. He couldn’t keep calm while talking and is slowly losing his thoughts and composure. The narrator also said he argued about trifles in a high key. This means he could not focus on one subject and was ranting and not thinking correctly, When he also swung the chair and grated it upon the boards, he is showing signs of violent gestures, which could possibly be caused from excessive fear, worry, or anxiety. Being violent and delusional with excessive speech and behaving erratically are all signs of insanity and shouldn’t be looked over

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