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Famous Gothic Works of Edgar Allen Poe
Famous Gothic Works of Edgar Allen Poe
Edgar Allen Poe writings
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The Tell-Tale Heart
The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is not guilty because of reason of insanity. Although the narrator claimed that he was not mad, he acted like it. He even thought that the old man had an “Evil Eye” that was vexing him. He actually seemed proud, and sounded like he was very confident, acting as if he was better than “mad” people. He is insane.
When the narrator began telling his story, he said that the “Evil Eye” was the one who brought him to do that terrible deed. It was a pale blue eye, with a film over it. “… for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye. (pg.1)” If a person is annoyed or scared of an ordinary eye to the point where they have to kill someone to get rid of it, they don’t seem sane. On page 2 of the mini-lesson, it states that someone can be compelled to commit this crime because of an irresistible force, which is the eye.
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“True!-nervous- very, very, dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? (pg.1)” It seemed like he was trying to convince himself that he didn’t do anything wrong. “I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? (pg. 1)” I don’t think he understood what he was doing. At the end of the story, he also hears a heartbeat under the floorboards. The policemen don’t seem to hear it, but it is loud and clear in his head. If he could hear things other people couldn’t, something is wrong with
Upon reading a little bit into the story the reader finds that the narrator likes the old man or rather doesn’t having anything against him, except for his eye. The pale blue eye was the focus point for his rage he hates but not the old man. How can anyone just hate someone’s eye without being mentally unstable? “I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture – a...
Moreover, the diction of the narrator and his repeated pleas to the reader to believe this thought, while not truly convincing, serve as a means to support his case. He asks, ”How, then, am I mad?” and “but why will you say that I am mad?” Beyond what could be considered a maniacal monologue, the narrator’s creepy fascination with the old man’s eye further distinguishes mental illness. What is described as “a pale blue eye, with a film over it” is, in all probability, a cataract, which is not nearly as evil as
The narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator realizes that he absences a reason for killing the old man he lives with. He even starts to admit having to love the man. He states, “There was no reason for what I did. I did not hate the old man; I even loved him. He had never hurt me. I did not want his money. I think it was his eye” (Poe 64). Psychosis is seen in the difficult rationality the narrator uses to defend his murder. The logic the narrator provides is that he thinks the desire to murder the old man results from the man’s eye, which bothers him. He says, “When the old man looked at me with his vulture eye a cold feeling went up and down my back; even my blood became cold. And so, I finally decided I had to kill the old man and close that eye forever!” (Poe 65). The fact that by this man’s eye is what makes him very angry is such a irrelevant reason for the narrator to kill him. This proves that he is not mentally stable, anyone in their right state of mind would not want to commit such a crime due to an irritation of someone’s eye. This represents the idea that this narrator expresses his complete lack of sanity through the premeditation and planning he put into committing the murder. In the beginning of the story, he says “vulture eye” giving the impression that he is uncertain that the eye is the reason for the murder, he also says how he thinks it’s the eye, he uses past tense as opposed to declaring with certainty that this is why the killing of the man. This shows the contrast to how as a sane person would be sure that this is their reason for killing another person before committing.
The irony in, “The Tell Tale Heart” is more obscure. The narrator is an insane and a man who has agitation, yet tries to persuade the reader that he is not just sane, but rather logical. He proves this by calmly explaining why the violent act happens, but only resulting in contrary to what is being influence to the readers. One of the act that takes place, was “every night, about midnight, [the narrator] turns the latch of [the old man’s] door and opened it ....It took [him] an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that [he] could see [the old man] as he lay upon his bed”. (1) It is abnormal enough for someone to speak repetitively, the narrator broke this boundary, in putting his somewhat mad plan into action. Another ironic moment was the need to confess his murder at the end of the story, due to guilt that is feeding on him alive. Though he is free of the judgmental eye, he is to be imprison for his
E. Arthur Robinson feels that by using this irony the narrator creates a feeling of hysteria, and the turmoil resulting from this hysteria is what places "The Tell-Tale Heart" in the list of the greatest horror stories of all time (94). Julian Symons suggests that the murder of the old man is motiveless, and unconnected with passion or profit (212). But in a deeper sense, the murder does have a purpose: to ensure that the narrator does not have to endure the haunting of the Evil Eye any longer. To a madman, this is as good of a reason as any; in the mind of a madman, reason does not always win out over emotion. Edward H. Davidson insists that emotion had a large part to play in the crime, suggesting that the narrator suffers and commits a crime because of an excess of emotion over intelligence (203).
In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator attempts to assert his sanity while describing a murder he carefully planned and executed. Despite his claims that he is not mad, it is very obvious that his actions are a result of his mental disorder. Hollie Pritchard writes in her article, “it has been suggested that it is not the idea but the form of his madness that is of importance to the story” (144). There is evidence in the text to support that the narrator suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was experiencing the active phase of said disease when the murder happened. The narrator’s actions in “The Tell-Tale Heart” are a result of him succumbing to his paranoid schizophrenia.
And when the storyteller couldn't take anymore of the Evil Eye looking at him, he said, "I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever. " This is the start of the storyteller’s madness, and as the reader listens to what he says, the madness within the storyteller becomes very apparent. For eight nights in a row, the storyteller went to the old man’s chamber and cast a shred of light upon the Evil Eye that he so hated. For seven nights, it was always shut, and the storyteller could do nothing because it was only the eye that he hated, not the old man. On the eighth, the storyteller accidentally makes some noise and wakes the old man up.
The want to do something wrong is in all of mankind. There are certain moments in life that define you. Whether you choose to give in to the wrong or not is what will make-up some of those moments. In his story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe writes to show the imperfections of people, the gruesome thoughts a person can have, and how these thoughts (“imperfections”) affect your actions. In the story there is a man (the narrator) who is watching over an elderly man in his home. A certain feature of the old man starts to taunt the narrator, this slowly starts driving him mad. This lunacy transitions into him murdering the old man. Following the murder, the police show up at the narrator’s house. Everything was
Firstly, at the end of this story, the narrator’s illusions are the most powerful pieces of evidence for his madness. It is his two illusions that betrays him and imposed him to confess the crime. His first illusion is the beating of the old man’s heart which actually did not exist. Initialy, exactly as he portrayed "My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears, it continued and became more distinct", the ringing he heard haunted him ceaselessly. Then he "found that the noise was not within his ear", and thought the fancy in his ear was the beating of old man’s heart. Because of the increasing noise, he thought the officers must hear it, too. However, in fact, everything he heard is absurd and illusive. And it proves that the narrator is really insane. Next, his second illusion is the officers’ "hypocritical smiles" which pushed him to completely be out of control. Losting of his mind, he called the officer "Villains". Apparently, he was confused and falsely thought "they were making a mockery of his horror" which irritated him intensively. Consequently, he told all the truth and "admitted the deed" in order to get rid of the growing noise. Therefore, the above two pieces of evidence both reveal the truth that the narrator is absolutely insane in contrary to what the narrator tried to tell us.
Many who are considered mad by others, would not consider themselves to be this way. Written by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a story of a murder. A theme that shows in this short story would be the line between sanity and insanity is blurred. At the beginning, the narrator says, “but why WILL you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them” (Poe par. 1). The narrator does not believe he has gone mad, but rather the opposite. He describes his senses becoming
In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, a man opens up by saying that he will defend his sanity yet confessing that he has killed old man who he takes care of. The police show up and ask him if he knows anything about the screams the old man had made. He tells them no and they believe him. In the end he hears them talking and laughing and assumes that they are mocking him and know that he is lying. He ends up confessing his crime and telling them that the body of the old man is under the floorboards.
This proves that the narrator is fair-minded because most mad people do not experience guilt in which the narrator did. Also, the narrator was hearing the beat of the old man's heartbeat which was actually his. The more the police questioned him the louder the beat got. “Villains!” I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!- tear up the planks!-here, here!-its is the beating of his hideous heart(Poe page 207)!”
In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator does not tell the story because he is mad, but because he is consumed by guilt. Just by reading this story we can come to the conclusion that the narrator is mad, that he had a few screws loose but the reason why I believe he felt the need to share the story is because he feels guilty. Throughout the story he always tries to imply that he is not mad but wise and as he tells the story he mostly feels laughter but as he continues he keeps thinking about the last thing he heard from the old man. As the story comes to the end the heart beat that the narrator keeps hearing I believe is actually his guilt speaking to him, but the narrator tries to play it off but is eventually in
The Tell Tale Heart is a story, on the most basic level, of conflict. There is a mental conflict within the narrator himself (assuming the narrator is male). Through obvious clues and statements, Poe alerts the reader to the mental state of the narrator, which is insanity. The insanity is described as an obsession (with the old man's eye), which in turn leads to loss of control and eventually results in violence. Ultimately, the narrator tells his story of killing his housemate. Although the narrator seems to be blatantly insane, and thinks he has freedom from guilt, the feeling of guilt over the murder is too overwhelming to bear. The narrator cannot tolerate it and eventually confesses his supposed 'perfect'; crime. People tend to think that insane persons are beyond the normal realm of reason shared by those who are in their right mind. This is not so; guilt is an emotion shared by all humans. The most demented individuals are not above the feeling of guilt and the havoc it causes to the psyche. Poe's use of setting, character, and language reveal that even an insane person feels guilt. Therein lies the theme to The Tell Tale Heart: The emotion of guilt easily, if not eventually, crashes through the seemingly unbreakable walls of insanity.
As the story begins the narrator tries to convince the reader that he is not insane. This goes on throughout the story. He says he suffers from over-acuteness. “And have I not told you that what you mist...